Abi shocks herself as she breaks Island 100m record

But slicing a whole tenth off her previous Guernsey 100m record, posting 11.80sec., in Sunday’s ActiveGsy Track and Field Series opener was one of those moments.

Seemingly continuing her momentum from setting a record every month of last year’s outdoor season, she impressed local spectators with an 11.89 heat at Footes Lane only to lose out to a marginally-illegal wind reading.

The stars then aligned in the final as Galpin found a near-perfect tailwind boost – 1.9m/s – and threw down an astonishing but legal time.

‘It’s a really great season opener and I was not expecting to run that at all,’ the 21-year-old said.

‘I would have been happy with any sub-12 run, so when I ran [under] .90 in the first round, even though it was illegal, I thought “That’s a great start”.

‘And then, to run that in the second round, I was completely shocked – especially for it to be a legal wind.’

Sunday’s sunny season opener otherwise brought the allure of being the first domestic track and field qualifier for the Guernsey 2023 Island Games.

Galpin went exactly a second under the A standard, while youngsters Emily Pike (12.75) and Amelia Hart (12.93) also posted legal qualifiers as several other girls went comfortably inside but lost out to marginal tailwinds.

Ben Stevens had dropped Galpin in the dying metres to win the final in 11.68, but Lucas Rive went fastest overall when he ran a B standard 11.32 in his heat despite hamstring cramps. Rive sat out the final.

In the 100m hurdles, Island Games champion Rhiannon Dowinton seemed to have finally broken the 15sec. barrier.

But her time ended up being adjusted to 15.01 – still a PB and qualifying mark.

Gian-Luca Robilliard and Darcey Hodgson took top honours in the longest track event, the 800m.

Robilliard had fellow U20 Jack Le Tissier on his shoulder almost throughout but powered on in the last 200m, winning in 1-59.36 to beat the Games B standard situated exactly on the 2min. barrier.

Le Tissier came just short as Nicolas Ackermann, Will Beasley and Toby Mann all ran good PBs.

A bizarre B heat saw U17 Rupert Wilson dominating the entire race before, seemingly without warning, tumbling onto the infield halfway through the home straight. He soon rose again and was not seriously hurt.

That left veteran Matt Jamieson to win in 2-20.98 but runner-up Hodgson, an U15, posted 2-21.58 to miss the women’s B standard by just 0.08sec.

One major talking point on the field was the return of quality high-jumper Alice Hunt, who had seemingly left the sport after untimely injury ruled her out of Gibraltar 2019.

A month after returning to training, Hunt matched the 1.40m of main rival Hodgson – a multi-eventing hopeful who also ran in the hurdles – as U17 boy Arthur Aylmer won the high jump outright with 1.57m.

Sofia Mella landed squarely on a B standard with her 4.90m leap in the long jump.

Overall the strongest field performance came from hammer star Sia Banbury, who produced her best throw since the first lockdown – 44.27 – which is not far off her 2019 Guernsey record.

But Galpin’s superb sprint reigned as the overall highlight of the 2022 season opener.

Next weekend, the track star will head to the BUCS Championships in Chelmsford having placed fifth at the indoor equivalent in February.

‘I’m hoping to make the final and see what goes on there,’ she said.

‘It’s really difficult this time of year because all the girls I’m racing haven’t raced yet – they may have done one race like me, otherwise they haven’t raced – so some people could be running amazingly, some people just don’t have it yet, so it’s up for anyone really.’