Double bronze delight for Orkney as Island Games day one ends

June 25, 2017 at 8:43 pm

Donald Sinclair and Bobby Spence proudly display their bronze medals.

Orkney enjoyed a great start to the 2017 NatWest Island Games, with two bronze medals in the bag.

The first day of competition had a perfect start, with the news that small-bore shooters Donald Sinclair and Bobby Spence scored 1143 to finish third in the NSRA 100-yard prone event.

It made it back-to-back bronze medals in the competition for the duo, after an identical result in Jersey two years ago.

Following on from that success, Bobby Oag secured a brilliant result, winning a bronze in the men’s triathlon.

Oag was in contention for silver, finding himself in second place on the last lap of the run. However, Menorca athlete Nil Riudavets Victory passed the Orkney athlete for the silver.

The two results has buoyed the atmosphere around the Orkney camp, with also some truly exceptional performances by a range of athletes.

The badminton players will meet familiar foes Shetland tomorrow, after finishing third in Group D.

The side suffered an agonising defeat to Menorca in the opener, and while they got beat by heavyweights Guernsey, they did beat Welsh side Ynys Môn. There were some fantastic, nail-biting matches, with many matches going the full three-sets.

Meanwhile, the footballers suffered a narrow defeat to bronze medalists of 2015 Menorca, losing 1-0.

While they will, ultimately, be disappointed by the defeat, they will take confidence from what was a fantastic team performance against the slick Spanish side.

After a goalless first half, Menorca opened the scoring midway the second period and also missed a penalty. Astonishingly, they also hit the woodwork five times. However, despite Menorca enjoying the lion’s share of possession, Orkney produced a faultless and tireless performance in the Gotland sun, and can take real heart into their next game against Alderney tomorrow.

Finally, the athletics got underway, with Taylah Spence progressing to the 100m semi-final. She ran a time of 12.94s to finish first in her heat. Tim Ross finished in eighth in the 10,000m, in a time of 34.33.50.