A spectacular opening ceremony parade is expected in Ryde prior to the official opening that will involve the athletes and 1,500 young people in a carnival style extravaganza.
Twenty-four islands are taking part. Over 3,000 athletes and officials from 24 islands around the world will be competing in a range of 14 sports over the six days.
The Island Games Association have Lord Sebastian Coe officially opening the NatWest Island Games 2011. The Games are for islands with populations of 250,000 or less.
Lord Coe is an inspirational athlete who won four Olympic medals, including the 1500 metres gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, and set eight outdoor and three indoor world records in middle distance track events – and also participated in a world record relay. In 2007, he was also elected a vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations.
The Isle of Wight team is the largest. It consists of 249 athletes and includes swimmer Darren Mew, world championship bronze medallist (1999, 2000), Commonwealth games silver medallist (1998, 2006) and Olympic finalist (2000, 2004) and possibly Kelly Sotherton, the Olympic hepthalon bronze medallist (2004) and Olympic fourth (2008), is also hoping to compete for Isle of Wight.
The first Island Games were in 1985 in the Isle of Man as part of their year of sport. The idea of bringing 15 Islands together for a friendly competition was very exciting, and there was a lot of press coverage, giving the games a fantastic initial boost.
The second Island Games were two years later, in Guernsey, and Alderney, Gibraltar and Sark all joined these Games. The Faroe Islands were given the honour of hosting the third Games, in 1989.
In order to host the Island Games, the hosts must have an athletic stadium of international standard. The Sports Association in the village of Toftir stepped in to help, as they had been planning to build an athletic stadium for years, but had not been able to justify it.
Åland hosted next. The Aland Island Games committee held its first meeting in January 1989. They employed just one person, but had over 500 volunteers to help with the organisation of the Games.
The Isle of Wight was given the opportunity to host the 1993 Games. Their mascot was called Corky, as ‘Caulkhead’ is the name of someone born on the Isle of Wight.
Gibraltar hosted the 1995 Games, but only after two people submitted a proposal to the executive committee asking to host the Games there. At first the committee had some reservations, but it was eventually approved.
The hosts of the seventh extravaganza was Jersey, and the Island Games 1997 turned out to be the biggest sporting occasion the Channel Islands had ever hosted.
When Gotland was given the 1999 Games to host, they wasted no time in gathering support from everyone on their Island, including the military!
Having the Isle of Man host the 2001 games was significant because they were the first Island to host them for a second time and it was the first of the millenium.
The 2003 Island Games, hosted by Guernsey decided to not go for a traditional opening or closing ceremony, and was very successful with their opening ceremony on the quayside, instead of the normal stadium or track setting.
The Shetland Islands are the smallest island to ever host the Games, with a population of only 23,000. One of the main problems was accommodation, however this was soon overcome, as someone drafted in two cruise liners to act as floating hotels for the week.
Rhodes hosted the 2007 tournament and had the problem of organising at their busiest tourist time, plus finding enough people to help out. They found around 1,500 volunteers in the end, many of them children from local schools who were very proud to be taking part.
Åland were the third island to host the event for a second time. The Faroe Islands were the overall 2009 winners, with 34 gold, 23 silver and 24 bronze medals.
Cayman athletes won’t have to travel too far for the next Games, in 2013, as they will be held in Bermuda.
The main sponsors of the 110-strong Cayman Islands team are the Cayman Islands government, Maples, Bank of Butterfield, Cayman Islands Olympic Committee, CUC, Tortuga Rum Company, Department of Tourism and Progressive Distributors.
Cayman will be competing in ten sports; athletics, golf, table tennis, squash, basketball, swimming, cycling, shooting, tennis and volleyball. The Island Games is the biggest multi-sport team Cayman takes to a Games. Victor Thompson is the general team manager of the whole team.
Cayman should, as always, bag plenty of medals, especially in athletics where they have seasoned competitors like Michael Letterlough who recently improved his own hammer throw record, the versatile Morgan twins, Carl and Carlos and sprinters Rhymiech Adolphus and Robert Ibeh.
In golf they have Caribbean Amateur women’s champion Samantha Widmer and also Emily Ribbins. 3 How do you expect the team to do? I am hoping to bring back a gold this year.
Widmer said: “In 2009, I received a bronze medal in the ladies individual category. I feel now that I have won the Caribbean Amateur Championships, I think that my game has developed and is good enough to place first at an international tournament like this.”
The squash team boasts multiple champs, many having competed at the Commonwealth Games last October and won medals at the Caribbean championships. They include Marlene West, Chantelle Day, Myron Blair and Cameron Stafford.
Coach Victor O’Garro heads the basketballers who can expect big things from the likes of his son Dwight O’Garro and Jerome Narcisse.
The swimmers always bring home a clutch of medals and Lara Butler can be depended on for some. The cyclists too, have a good chance of glory as do the shooters.
Tennis is always one of Cayman’s best sources for medals and with boy wonder Panav Jha competing they shouldn’t have too much trouble keeping that going. Eduardo Torres is a former tennis gold medallist and he fancies his chances again but may have to beat Jha to get it. Torres beat Jha on his way to gold four years ago but the tables may be turned this time.
Volleyball veteran Olney ‘OT’ Thompson is the best in his team, full of experienced players and they could spring a surprise.
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