Dale Garland clears the high-jump bar with an old fashioned straddle technique during a busy day at Foote’s Lane. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 0634724)

GUERNSEY’S male athletes comprehensively beat their Jersey counterparts at Foote’s Lane on Saturday, but the women’s event was the reverse.

Lee Merrien was the star of the show, breaking the 1,500m and 5,000m records, the latter by the large margin of almost 10 seconds, bringing the time under the 15min. mark.

He was pleased with his efforts, which helped the host island to a 104-82 victory.  ‘I was aiming for the records and I said that at the beginning of the season because there wasn’t much else to aim for.  I was confident of breaking both, and in the 5,000 I knew I was in a good position with a lap to go and I ended up shattering it.’

Merrien, who is also the island’s athletics development officer, was pleased with the efforts of the youngsters, most notably Leo Rice, an under-17 competing in his first inter-insular, who finished an impressive second in both the hurdles events, over 110m and 400m.