Island games: swimmers shine again as Strachan wins gold, Harper silver and Gifford bronze

They did it again! Shetland’s Andrea Strachan powered her way to a remarkable fourth gold medal in the 100m individual medley at the island games last night while Amy Harper took a second off her qualifying time in the 100m freestyle to win silver. And Shetland has its first games medal in the men’s swimming courtesy of Felix Gifford who won bronze in the 400m freestyle.

Andrea, who has had a sensational games, broke her third games record, only this time she waited until the final to record a time of 1.04.59, more than a second faster than her qualifying time of 1.05.62. Amy’s 58.15 in her final propelled her into second place after she had qualified third fastest in the heats in 59.12.

Meanwhile Felix took almost five seconds off his qualifying time to win the bronze. He had been second fastest in the heats in 4.10.94 but as the Faroe and Jersey swimmers that won gold and silver powered through he increased his pace to make Shetland swimming history.

The Shetland mixed relay team of Felix, Amy, Callum MacGregor, Craig Nicolson, Megan Petursdottir, Andrea, Jake Swanson and Sarah Williamson came fifth in the 8x50m freestyle relay while the women’s team came sixth in the 4x100m medley relay. The men came fourth in the 4x100m relay, beating their qualifying time by three seconds.