The Western Isles Island Games Association (WIIGA) has finalised its squad selection for this summer’s NatWest International Island Games.
The week-
WIIGA will take a squad of 106 covering nine sports including athletes, coaches, management and medical team.
The games provide an opportunity for island athletes to compete at a high level international event, which will be one of the biggest multi-
General team manager, Iain GG Campbell, said: “We are delighted to be able to announce the team at this stage. Continuing our aims to provide the opportunity for our most talented young athletes to compete at international level with almost half of the participating athletes under 25.
“The announcement of the squad is always eagerly awaited and I would like to congratulate all those who have been selected.”
He added: “Following the postponement of the Guernsey games and the disruption to sport due to Covid restrictions it is exciting to see new talent emerging and we are really looking forward to seeing how they react to the scale of the games and the standard of competition they will encounter.”
The Western Isles team will compete in nine sports -
“The standards at the Island Games are incredibly high with many top international athletes competing across the range of sports. Overall these games will allow us to assist the development of our younger athletes, with a sprinkling of more experienced athletes pushing to qualify for finals, and hopefully gain the odd medal here and there.
“The hope now is that everyone’s final preparations go well and that they all stay injury free. We are really looking forward to seeing this group represent our islands in Guernsey.”
WIIGA chair, Norrie Macdonald said: “There is a lot of hard work that goes into getting to this stage from the athletes vying for selection, club coaches and team managers supporting their athletes and making some hard choices on occasions, and the WIIGA committee dealing with the logistics of getting the squad to Guernsey. We are incredibly grateful to all who give their time to provide this amazing opportunity for our talented sports stars.
“The Island Games is a key part of the jigsaw in encouraging our communities to be more active and giving confidence to our young people that they can compete at a high level against athletes from around the world -
Nearly 100 competitors in Team Western Isles for 2023 Island Games
27 March 2023
Euan Macleod (WIIGA women’s football team manager), footballers Beth Macphail and Maimie Zimmerman, Iain GG Campbell (WIIGA general team manager)