Island games: double medal success for Shetland as swimmers Strachan and Harper win gold and silver

Shetland swimmer Andrea Strachan won gold in the women’s 50m breaststroke at the island games tonight, breaking the tournament record for the distance for the second time in one day, while Amy Harper took silver in the 200m freestyle.

Andrea had been the fastest qualifier in the event earlier today at the Isle of Wight’s Medina Leisure Centre in a time of 32.59 seconds – the previous record was 33.18 – but managed to beat her own time by just 0.02 seconds, touching ahead of Laura Kinley and Poppy Evans from the Isle of Man.

Amy came just over a second behind the first placed swimmer, Kristina Neves from Guernsey, in a time of 2.03.11. Amy also qualified for the 400m individual medley final.

Felix Gifford, who was the fourth fastest qualifier in the men’s 200m butterfly in a time of 2.09.73, bettered his time to 2.08.66 but missed out on a medal by one place. Felix also made it into the final of the 200m individual medley where he came fifth.

Both the Shetland relay teams made it into the finals. Amy Harper, Andrea Strachan, Sarah Williamson and Megan Petursdottir were third fastest in the heats 4x50m freestyle and came a creditable fifth in 1.52.50. In the men’s 4×50 medley, Felix Gifford, Craig Nicolson, Jake Swanson and Callum MacGregor also came fifth in 1.51.55.

See more pictures here.