Orkney 2025 pick Emma Etheredge, who is currently the northern isle’s highest-profile track runner, also hopes that staging key events and talking to schoolchildren will help elevate athletics in Alderney.
She is one of the four recent Games picks showcased on Alderney Athletics’ new Instagram, alongside Rosie Evans, Charmaine Johnson and the Kenya-born Ben Mutua.
Mutua is a particularly intriguing presence. He has moved over as a chef and could well turn a few heads in the Island Games 5,000m and 10,000m.
Farmer Evans has taken up serious running only recently and is building up for a half marathon outing, having run within Guernsey’s B standard in the Eastleigh 10k.
The London-based Etheredge is preparing for her second Games, focusing on the 800m and 1,500m, while ever-enthusiastic veteran Johnson will juggle various field events on her fourth appearance.
‘The issue we have right now is just visibility,’ Etheredge said.
‘Maybe in the past, we haven’t shouted so much about people who have gone to the Games, or people weren’t really sure how to access the Games or how to train for it, because we don’t have a track or official club or training group or anything.’
Although this is their largest squad since Guernsey 2003, and double that of the latest home Games, Etheredge admits that ‘four people really isn’t very many’.
She hopes they can inspire others and encourage them to seek grants from bodies like the Alderney Sports Foundation.
‘We post a lot about what we’re doing in training – what Rosie does, as a farmer-come-athletics-girl, what I’m doing as someone who competes for Alderney but also lives in London for work, how that works, and how Ben and Charmaine train as well.
‘The first aspect is the social media side, being more transparent on there, and trying to inspire people to do it themselves.
‘The other element is getting a bit more involved with the community. For example, Rosie and I are going to the school in June just before the Games to talk the kids through what our training routine looks like, how to access the Games and how to access some grant funding in order to receive support for things like hiring a coach and things like leaving the island for training.’
The 2025 Specsavers Youth Games organisers have, for only the second time, included Alderney students within their programme.
But the Alderney athletics community are also expanding their domestic event offering.
Beyond the 10-mile Alderney Coast Path Challenge, and 10km and half marathon races, they debuted their more accessible ‘Not-Park-Run’ in late February.
They will be hosting these monthly 5km events around Braye Common in a bid to emulate the success of the global parkrun movement.
Around their first and second Not-Park-Runs, which attracted 17 and 24 participants respectively, Etheredge has received interest from several Jersey and Guernsey residents, which she described as ‘really cool’.
‘Having key events through the year is really critical, so that people can have an opportunity to train and test themselves against the community, or even other people from other islands that come over.’
This push to elevate Alderney athletics comes 20 years after they achieved their first and to date only medals in the sport, a silver-and-bronze double from Nikki Neal in Shetland.
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