28th June – 4th July.
Thousands of spectators packed the seafront at St.Peter Port, the Island’s capital, on June 28th to watch around 2,500 competitors and officials parade from North Beach to the Albert Pier. The 23 islands included a new recruit in Bermuda but although the Island in the North Atlantic was taking part for the first time it was to make its presence felt by finishing fourth in the medals table with a tally of 15 gold medals.
This games proved to be the hardest ever for the Orkney team – they recorded their lowest ever total in the medal table. In fact up until the last day it looked as if they would return home empty handed, but Jim Middlemas prevented the whitewash with a bronze in the Men’s recurve head to head knockout. He beat the Faroese archer by just one point in the play off.
The closing ceremony saw the games flag handed over to Shetland who were due to host the 2005 event. It was something for the Orkney team to look forward to – for once the journey would be a short one – and hopes were high that they could put Guernsey behind them and concentrate on greater success in two years time.
Leave a Reply