JEREMY OSBORNE was swapping effortlessly between class swimmer and samba band member. It was the morning after the night before at the Nautical Club of Rhodes and the new Island Games 100m freestyle champion was armed with plastic barrel and a makeshift drumstick, pounding away to encourage his teammates.
Intermittently it was off with what have become trademark white-rimmed shades and green headband and down in calculated fashion to the pool to qualify for another final.
He was thoroughly enjoying himself.
‘There is a great team morale,’ he said with a big grin, adding that he and Jonathon Le Noury had taken to the stand-out sunglasses ‘because they’re nice’, with a shrug that said; ‘Why not?’
The reason for him being able to let his hair down is that he has achieved his major goal for the Games.
‘The 100 free has been my main focus this week, so I was happy with that gold.’
The 17-year-old man mountain’s performance in that race was that of a deserved champion.
Having been second at the halfway mark, he upped the ante and cruised past Gotland’s Adam Jakobsson over the second 50m.
‘The strategy was just to go out hard, to do my best and give it my all,’ Osborne said.
‘I tend to do that [come from behind] a lot.
‘Everyone normally sprints from the start, but I normally hold back a bit and up the pace as the race goes on.’
It was Osborne’s second gold of the Games following his success in the 200m individual medley.
He won another in the men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay, another of those races which the Guernsey team had marked down as a must-win, and also picked up three silver and three bronze medals.
So how has he enjoyed his second Games experience?
‘This has been tougher than Shetland,’ he said.
‘The competition has been a lot better, but it’s definitely good to swim against these guys.’
Article posted on 7th July, 2007 - 12.00am
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