Matt Girard flies the Guernsey flag in Pune. (Picture by Paul Guillou, 0657486)
AS THE Guernsey team made its way back from the Commonwealth Youth Games, the long flight home gave the team managers the opportunity to reflect on the performance.
Obviously, they were pleased to see Guernsey finish in 13th position out of 71 countries.
The Commonwealth Games Federation uses the same format as the official Olympics table for its medal table, based on the number of golds that were won.
Even if the American approach (which placed the USA top of all countries at the Beijing Olympics) of adding the total number of medals is used, Guernsey place 22nd.
For the record, Jersey were among the 38 countries that did not win a medal.
However, there is even better news when Sarnians look at the alternative medals table, which takes into account golds per head of the population.
Guernsey finished top of that with one per 61,811, ahead of Grenada in second place with a gold medal per 110,000 and Samoa in third place with one per 185,000.
The alternative medals table became all the rage during the Beijing Olympics, especially as Britain managed to secure fourth place in the medals table proper.
If the table had been done according to size of population, then Bahamas, Jamaica and Slovenia would have been top.
Another table that is often used is the medal per size of team ratio. In that, Guernsey finished in ninth place.
‘Of course, we can’t take the table too seriously, but it should remind the island of the fantastic achievement of the Guernsey team and shows that our youngsters were, to use a sporting cliche, boxing above their weight,’ said athletics team manager Alun Williams.
‘Also, anything that reinforces bragging rights over Jersey can’t be all bad.
‘There is also a serious side to the acquisition of a medal.
‘It was obviously a significant achievement to get the gold and we weren’t that far away from getting medals in some other sports.
‘In the coming months we need to reflect on that, work out what has helped contribute to our success and work on some of the areas where we need improvement.
‘The challenge for this team and those who follow is to build on the success in the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Isle of Man in 2011.’Commonwealth Youth Games: Watson’s gold puts island first in ‘per head of population’ ratio
Article posted on 22nd October, 2008 - 2.29pm
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