SWIMMER Kerrie Smith picked up Jersey’s first medal at the Jeux des Iles yesterday as she swam an excellent 200m backstroke to strike silver.
With a personal best and national qualifying time of 2.27.02 the 13-year-old said: ‘It’s amazing to be the first Jersey medallist.
I wasn’t expecting to do it but my turns went well and my stroke rate was good so the race went really well.’ With her parents watching at the poolside the Les Quennevais student went on to gain fifth in the 50m backstroke, sixth in the 200m free and eighth in the 400m individual medley.
The swimmers really were on form in Bastia as 21 personal best times were smashed between the nine swimmers which put them in seventh overall.
Tom Gallichan achieved a national qualifying time as he finished eighth in the 400m IM and another as he came 11th in the 200m free after earlier picking up sixth in the 200m backstroke.
While Charlotte Manning missed out on bronze by one 100th of a second as she came home fourth in the 100m breaststroke before racing home fifth in the 400m IM.
The 4 x 100m free relay team also just missed out on a bronze as Sophie Van Neste, Misha Jackson, Sophie Bashforth and Hannah Ross finished the race in fourth.
Excellent results were also achieved at the rugby in Monticello as the sevens team remained undefeated to qualify for today’s demonstration sport final against Sicily who are also unbeaten.
As reported yesterday Jersey opened the day with a 14-0 slamming of Mayotte then a 14-10 win over Sardinia.
Needing a victory to qualify for today’s final Jersey just edged through against 14-12 over Guadeloupe, with their least-impressive performance of the tournament.
Mathew Gosselin and Greg Turner scored the tries with the two Daniels, Clark and McAviney, adding a conversion each.
Guadeloupe had the chance to make it 14-14 but sliced a conversion kick wide which meant Jersey progress as group winners.
And although it was confirmed yesterday that the sport will not be included in Guadeloupe’s main programme for next year’s event, their rugby team are pushing hard for the sport to again be included as a demonstration sport.
Said Jersey team coach Mark White: ‘It’s been a great tournament, the setting and organisation has been superb.
Our lads have been great, on and off the pitch, so we’re right behind Guadeloupe’s move to include rugby again.
I understand it takes two years as a demonstration sport before it is included as a mainstream event anyway.’ Back in Ajaccio the table tennis team showed great maturity as they bounced back from a disappointing start to win their matches and take third in Division II - just missing out on a promotion place for next year.
They beat Martinique 3-0 with Josh Band winning his tie 3-0, and Scott Cassin and Luke Walker picking up 3-1 victories.
Next they overpowered Mayotte 3-1 with Band winning 3-0, Walker losing 3-2, Cassin winning 3-0 and, as it was first to three, Walker came back out to win 3-1.
In the doubles Band and Cassin joined forces but Jersey were knocked out 3-1 by Guadeloupe - a tough individual event gets started this afternoon.
Meanwhile, facing top class competition, Jersey’s sailors earned some great results in the opening three races of their event.
With all the competitors lining up for the start there were over 60 Optimist boats raring to go but a late change of course during the second race meant that that result was voided and an average taken from race one and three to give points for race two - Laurence Carter the biggest casualty as his 15th finish position was demoted to 25th.
Current positions after three races put Fleur Moisan (15) in 16th overall after finishing 14th, 20th and 19th and Laura-Jane Carter (14) in 20th as she crossed the line for 18th, 23rd and 24th in the girls’ races.
While 14-year-old Charles Perkins achieved a 13th, 17th and 20th to put him in 16th overall, 11-year-old Laurence Carter showed great promise to pick up a 22nd, 25th and 27th and now lies in 26th.
The tennis teams found the going a little harder yesterday - the girls received a bye as Corsica withdrew from the event, but then came up against top class Croatian side Korcula.
Kirsten McArthur lost 6-1, 6-0; Eva Moynihan lost 6-0, 6-4 and they lost the doubles 6-0, 6-4 while the boys started the day with a 2-1 victory over Madeira.
James Faudemer won 6-7, 6-1, 10-5; Scott Clayton won 6-1, 6-3 and the pair lost the doubles 10-5 in the deciding tiebreak.
They next faced Gran Canaria and lost 3-0 - Faudemer having to face Spain’s junior No 3 in his opening game.
The Jersey teams now face the play offs to decide fifth to eighth place.
In the gymnastics, Jersey bettered their position from Sicily last year by coming sixth in the team competition.
All four gymnasts performed well throughout the day and Lisa Luce (14) was the top finisher in 16th.
Olivia Ward (12) was 18th, Lisa Day (13) was 23rd and Shinarah le Blancq (12) was 30th - the team await the announcement of the individual results today to see if they are in the top six to qualify for the final round.
On the athletics track, coaches Andrew and Sandra Winnie were pleased with their team’s performance on the opening day of competition.
With the squad’s main events still to come yesterday was seen as a good chance to get a feel for the track.
There were promising performances from high jumper Ross Jeffs who missed out on a long jump pb by just 4 cms while the 4 x 100m girls’ relay team finished just outside of the medals as they came fourth from the time trial heats.
Article posted on 25th May, 2007 - 12.00am
Most Commented: