TOP sportsmen and women will descend on the island this weekend as Guernsey once again plays host to a packed schedule of Easter action. Visitors from as near as Jersey and as far as Africa will be competing against some of our own Sarnian stars in a variety of sports.

Leading the way are high-quality athletes from Ethiopia and Kenya who will be joining some of the UK’s finest in the Healthspan Easter Festivals.

Kassa Tadesse, an Ethiopian who is now Great Britain qualified, and Kenyan Joseph Kabor are expected to be among the challengers for the men’s overall title.

Matt Ashton, Aldershot’s GB under-23 international, is also likely to be in the hunt for honours in the four-race series. He is one of a 10-strong group being brought to the island by renowned distance coach Mick Woods.

Our own Commonwealth Games runner, Lee Merrien, is likely to feature on two of the four days, including in the feature race the Good Friday Healthspan 10km road race based at Port Soif.

GB internationals James Thie and Nick Speight are flying in especially for that opening event and their presence could push the Sarnian to a new course record.

It currently stands at 29min. 14sec. while his PB for Port Soif is 30-40 compared with a 10km PB anywhere of 30-08.

‘It’s a good, strong field and it will be nice to get mixed into a real race,’ Merrien said.

‘I feel it’s a bit of a step into the unknown. I was running well before going away on holiday, but I’m a bit unsure where I am with 10k.’

As for an attempt on Rob Whalley’s 2004 course record, Merrien added: ‘I’d rather go out and just do a race and if that brings a record, then great.’

European junior cross-country champion Stephanie Twell makes her return to the Easter Festival, much to the delight of the GIAAC organisers. The 17-year-old is regarded by many as GB’s next great distance runner.

Having just returned from injury, Twell might not feature every day, but will definitely be worth watching out for in the opening 10km event for which she holds the record of 35-34.

For arguably her main rival, Newbury’s Susie Bush, a weekend in Guernsey will seem a million miles away from her previous excursion – the world’s biggest 5km road race for women in Addis Ababa in which she competed alongside 8,000 other runners at the weekend.

Island Games medallist Louise Perrio will lead the Guernsey’s female challenge.

Indoors, the island’s own Paul Le Tocq is the men’s number one seed and defending champion in the Islands Insurance Guernsey Open Badminton Tournament.

The former Welsh singles title winner and two-time Commonwealth Games competitor does not expect to have everything his own way, though, and last year’s finalist, Mark Selwood, from Warwickshire, is likely to be a big threat.

The tournament has attracted a record entry, with some 125 visitors from Jersey, England, Wales and Scotland joining 45 locals.

‘Many of the [visiting] players are in the top 20 of the Badminton England rankings and there are also some current and ex internationals in the field,’ said tournament referee and secretary Sue Naftel.

Others to look out for in the men’s draw are Mark Ashton, Martin Ventham and Andrew Penn, from Hampshire, Norfolk’s Ian Murphy, Toumas McVey, from Buckinghamshire, and Middlesex’s Chris Gilbert.

No-one will want to draw Guernsey’s Darren Le Tissier early on either.

The women’s singles will also be keenly contested, with Hampshire’s Jo Dix the top seed, followed by Caroline Smith of Leicester, Norfolk’s Katherine Cooper and the island’s own Elena Johnson.

Johnson and Le Tocq will join forces in the mixed doubles, which has a huge entry of 64. Top seeds are Chris Evans and Sarah Burgess.

Evans and his partner Adam Smith, are out to defend their men’s doubles title while Burgess, who won the women’s doubles last year, will be joined by Kelly Holdaway.

There are also veteran doubles events for players over 40.

At Chemin Le Roi, the annual BSJA Guernsey Easter Show includes the last chance for combinations to qualify for the second round of the SEIB Trailblazers, which will be held on 12 May.

They take place on the opening day of two with Saturday hosting the main Grand Prix events while the selectors will be looking out at possible Guernsey team representatives for the Liberation Show in Jersey.

‘Entries are really good and we have Jersey competitors coming over,’ said show secretary Sarah Mills.

‘We also have a good contingent of 12.2s and nursery entries, which is really encouraging for the future.’

Also taking place is the traditional Guernsey Easter Hockey Festival with 20 teams having signed up for three days of social sport.

‘The success of this committee’s first festival last year has really driven us to make this year’s even better,’ said committee member Gemma Duport.

‘We are really excited about the mixture of teams. Along with the stalwarts of the festival, we have some new teams, promising to make it the best yet.’

Another regular event, the Guernsey Velo Club Easter series, takes to the road over the four consecutive mornings while motorsport’s summer season begins with a sprint at Vazon on Saturday.

There are also several Priaulx League fixtures and Guernsey under-16s’ first foray into South and West Counties Championship football just for good measure.