While her decorated teammate Abi Galpin could be depended on to bag a medal, which she achieved with 100m bronze, the up-and-coming athlete’s 400m run took her to new individual highs in the second night of athletics at the Pickaquoy Centre.
After all, as Galpin was racing to gold at Guernsey 2023, Hart was an unused relay reserve.
But the Bath Spa University student has come into her own this year and especially over the 400m, which she had not raced before 2025.
She had showed great promise the day prior with a fine heat win in Kirkwall. And come yesterday’s final, she started in relatively controlled fashion but attacked off the last bend to make a critical overtake on a Faroese rival and secure bronze, plus a personal best of 57.41sec.
‘It’s amazing,’ she said of that podium feeling.
‘I was really hoping to get a medal, so I’m really pleased – super proud of myself.’
Reflecting on how far she has come, she added: ‘The Games wasn’t even on my radar at the end of last year, because I wasn’t expecting to be doing the “4”, and I wasn’t thinking that this was going to be something that I’d be doing.
‘To even have made the final was crazy, and then to medal is even better.’
In the showdown to be crowned the fastest woman of Orkney 2025, home prospect Taylah Paterson stormed to gold in 11.90.
But there was very little to split those behind her. Shetland’s Katie Dinwoodie snatched the silver in 12.13, with Galpin taking third in 12.18 and two Manx athletes following within the next 0.05sec.
Galpin had qualified that same evening with second behind Paterson in her semi-final.
The other final with Guernsey interest came in a tough men’s 10,000m, where James Priest placed eighth in 33-26.89.
The packed race included Manx athlete Corrin Leeming becoming the first runner to break 30min. in Games history.
Two of Guernsey’s athletes missed out narrowly on finals.
Tilly Beddow ran 12.70 in her 100m semi-final to miss out on non-automatic qualification by just 0.10sec.
The margin was even finer for Games debutant Nic Ackermann in the men’s 400m, where he ran strongly in the late stages of his ‘semi’ to end up in a super-close finish for second with Jersey’s Tyler Johnson.
Johnson posted 50.85 and the Sarnian, who was just 0.01sec. down, unfortunately made neither the two automatic qualifying positions or the ‘fastest losers’ spots.
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