NatWest Island Games: Shalamon & Hanlon Among Multiple Event Winners

2019 NatWest Island Games

• Saturday, July 6th – Friday, July 12th
• Gibraltar Peninsula
• SCM
• Results

The 2019 edition of the NatWest International Island Games took place on Gibraltar from Saturday, July 6th to Friday, July 12th, with over 2500 athletes from 24 islands contesting 14 different sports.

Held every 2 years, the multi-national event sees competitors from island countries such as Jersey, Isle of Man, Shetland, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and the Isle of Wright, among many others. A total of twenty-seven islands or island groups have participated in the Island Games; eleven of these have participated in every Island Games.

In the overall medal table, Jersey took home the most golds of 33, but it was Isle of Man who won topped the swimming-specific medal table.

Overall Medal Table Across All Sports:

Top Nations on Swimming Medal Table:

Over the course of the swimming competition alone, 19 Island Games Records were broken across both men’s and women’s events.

Jersey’s Harry Shalamon accounted for 4 of the individual swimming records, cracking the meet standard in the 50m back, the 100m back, the 200m back and the 200m IM events.

Shalamon took the men’s 50m back gold in a time of 24.31, the 100m back gold in a time of 52.82 and the 200m back gold in a mark of 1:56.40. The Jersey swimmer, who competes for Grand Valley State University stateside, also won the 20om IM in 2:00.35, the 100m fly in 53.32, and the 50m fly in 24.41 to make his mark on this biannual competition.

The women’s record onslaught was led by Faroe Islands swimmer Signhild Joensen, who fired off new marks in the women’s 100m and 200m backstroke races. She took gold in the former in a time of 1:01.58 and the latter in 2:11.24.

Additional Multi-Event Winners:

• Isle of Man’s Alex Bregazzi won the men’s 200m free in 1:47.66, the 400m free in 3:52.80 and the 100m IM in a time of 56.86.
• His teammate Olivia Marshall also brought home multiple pieces of hardware for Isle of Man, reaping gold in the 50m and 100m fly races with respective efforts of 27.31 and 1:01.89.
• Faroe Islands’ Var Erlingsdottir Eidesgaard was a one-woman wrecking ball across numerous events, bringing home 6 individual golds over the course of the meet. Eidesgaard’s golden events included the 50 free (26.11), 200m free (2:00.74), 400m free (4:17.18), 800m free (9:03.62), 1500m free (16:47.54) and 400m IM (4:50.89).
• Kara Hanlon of Western Isles demonstrated her prowess in the women’s breaststroke races, winning the 50m (31.08), 100m (1:07.28) and 200m (2:25.45) in style. The University of Edinburgh athlete also won the women’s 100m IM in a time of 1:03.37.