This Is Guernsey

By Gareth Le Prevost

SARNIAN nerves were shredded last night but it was worth it as Guernsey’s awesome men’s 4×100 medley quartet snatched a sensational gold.

The Alands Idrottscenter was absolutely rocking even before the best race of the evening, but the noise from the Sarnian contingent on the balcony which drove Jeremy Osborne to take the touch ahead of the Faroes was deafening.

Footballers, golfers, table tennis players and a vast array of VIPs were there to cheer their fellow islanders home in a massive new Island Games record.

Jonathon Le Noury had led off on the opening leg, in which the brilliant Grant Halsall set a new Games record for the 100m backstroke, and handed over to Ben Lowndes with Guernsey in third.

Breaststroke is not Lowndes’ favoured stroke, but he did his job of maintaining position magnificently and Ian Hubert entered the water just where he wanted to be – in contention with the Faroes the team to beat in the next lane.

Hubert may be the least celebrated of the four, but his outstanding performance was crucial, closing the gap down to exactly half-a-second with the freestyle to go.

Osborne did the rest with a display of sheer power that will live long in the memory.

He had halved the deficit with 50m to go and Guernsey’s fifth man – their supporters – gave him the required push to take him past the Faroes down the final length.

The time of 3-49.32 destroyed the previous record by five seconds and the winning margin was 0.33sec.

‘There is a massive crowd here tonight and a huge support for us. I could hear them going mad down the last 50,’ Osborne said.

Hubert added: ‘It is a brilliant atmosphere and it led to a brilliant swim from all of us.’

Le Noury, who admitted being nervous, said: ‘It was a helluva race. To have the footballers, the Bailiff and all those other Guernsey people here was fantastic.

‘We always had that air of confidence, but we knew that the Faroes and Jersey wanted it so bad too.’

Jersey touched in bronze medal position, but were disqualified for an early take-over.

Team manager Alison Frankland, who Le Noury said had put together ‘the perfect storm of a team’, was struggling for words afterwards.

‘It was very emotional and such a hard fought win. They all swam out of their skins,’ she said.

‘It is nice to beat the Faroes, who are very strong.

‘They all swam brilliantly. I am amazed by what they are doing.’

Lowndes had already enjoyed his own piece of individual glory in the opening final of the evening as he retained his 100m individual medley gold with an astonishing record-breaking display.

He reached 50m in the lead and he held that position with a courageous second half of the race to touch in 57.54sec., slashing Tom Hollingsworth’s mark by over a second and relegating the all-conquering Pal Joensen into silver.

‘I knew it would be tough with him [Joensen] and Ian Black from Jersey against me. I knew I had done a good first three legs and hopefully I could hold him off, although I did see him catching me up at the finish,’ Lowndes said.

That gold was followed by a bronze for Robyn Le Friec in the 400m freestyle, the Sarnian touching in 4-24.90.

Le Noury then added a silver to the haul in the 200m backstroke, a race won by Halsall in another new record of 2-00.91. The Sarnian clocked a big PB of 2-02.40.

‘He set a British junior record in the 50 – he is something else,’ said Le Noury.

The blue riband event – the men’s 100m freestyle – saw Osborne defending his title against Joensen.

The Faroes machine, who set a new record of 50.04, just edged out the Sarnian in another terrific contest, but Osborne was delighted with his silver medal time of 50.41.

‘That is a massive PB – over a second,’ he said.

‘He has a long-distance background, so I knew he had a stronger back end to the race than me so the plan was to go out hard and try to hold on, but he is just amazing.’

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Article posted on 2nd July, 2009 - 2.55pm