JERSEY’S men’s relay team took part in one of the most exciting swimming races ever staged during a Commonwealth Games today.

At their first time of asking in the 4x100m relay, and before 10,000 screaming fans, they managed to finish ahead of Guernsey in seventh place – a respectable result considering they were in the pool with the world record holders.

The team of Alexis Militis (25), Liam du Feu (22), Daniel Halksworth (20) and Simon Le Couilliard (19), who earlier in the day suffered a major disappointment by failing to qualify for the final in his strongest event – the 200m fly.

They were the first to represent Jersey in a 4x100m relay to be held in a 50m pool and their finishing time of 3 min 34.44 sec therefore stands as a new Island record.

The race, which was won by South Africa in a Games record time of 3.14.97, was a tremendous experience for the team, which virtually cleared-up the medals during last year’s Island Games in Shetland.

Swimming coach and team manager Paul du Feu said: ‘I am still gob-smacked at the atmosphere in the pool.

In my 30 years of coaching I’ve never been involved in anything like it.

I don’t know how you are going to put it into words! ‘We knew we weren’t going to win, but we wanted to make sure that we beat Guernsey and we did that.

But I’m not sure if anyone in Jersey will ever experience an atmosphere like that at any sport again.’ After the race Alexis Militis, who swam the first leg, said: ‘I swam really hard there and the first length went well, but I could really feel it coming home.’ Daniel Halksworth added: ‘My legs are really hurting there.

I gave it everything I had and in an atmosphere like that you can’t do anything else.’ The individual times for the 100m legs were: Militis 52.96 secs; Halksworth 54.75 secs; Liam du Feu 53.39 secs; Le Couilliard 53.34 secs.