DESPITE Jersey officials putting forward a strong case for netball’s inclusion on the Island Games list of sports, the move was rejected by a large majority at the Island Games annual general meeting It is a severe blow for a sport that was such a success when held as a demonstration sport in the Isle of Wight in 1993.

Jersey’s netballers won the tournament then, but have had nothing but heartbreak since.

But it certainly was not all bad news for Island sports, as the proposal to remove both squash and bowls from the existing list was defeated.

THE Island Games of 2013 will be held across the Atlantic.

Only Bermuda and Prince Edward Island have put forward bids to host the Games in six years’ time, so the Games will leave the European arena for the first time.

The news was announced at the Island Games Association’s annual general meeting yesterday, at which Jersey’s Bob McGinnigle was elected unopposed onto the IGA executive committee.

GAMES competitors will be drug-tested in Åland in two years’ time.

Although it is, in theory, already possible at an Island Games, the event in Aland will definitely have sportsmen and women randomly selected to be tested for performance enhancing substances.

The executive committee will be sending two officers, including Jersey’s Dr Carl Clinton, the association’s honorary medical adviser, to the WADA conference in Madrid to pave the way for the next step.