Competing in the AAA under-20 championship morning session in Bedford, Thèrin won bronze in the discus then ran, taxied, flew, taxied and ran her way to Foote’s Lane to earn silver for Jersey in the NatWest Island Games javelin!But such are the standards the teenager sets herself, she was disappointed in her weekend’s work.
Her discus throw of 39.78 at the AAA’s was nearly eight metres below her PB and her javelin mark of 40.93m in Guernsey some five metres off her career best.
And while the 17-year-old Millfield pupil understands that she is still in the first year of her national U20 age group and competing against older athletes, not getting the Games title clearly hurt.’I really tried hard to win that,’ she said after sportingly thanking her opponents and event officials at the end.
‘I put too much into the fifth throw and strained my back.
Perhaps I tried too hard.In truth, she probably deserved to win gold.
Thèrin’s throws were consistently improving and peppering the 40m mark, while Siisike Laide’s third, gold-winning throw of 41.18m, although 25 cm clear, was some way distant of her average mark in the six-throw competition.
Laide later left the stadium to compete against Jersey at table tennis.
Multi-eventer indeed!Thèrin, meanwhile, still has the shot and her strongest event, discus, to come.But while one 17-year-old Jersey team member was disappointed with silver another was elated with bronze.
High jumper Simon Phelan’s last Games outing was in the Isle of Man where he injured himself in his first jump, so taking a medal with an official PB from an excellent competition was a superb way to start his week.Phelan, supported by all the family, revealed a true competitor’s nature to secure his gong.
The standard of the leading pair – eventual winner Martin Aram of the Isle of Man broke the Games record with a huge jump of 2.13m after being pushed hard by Rhodes’ Athanasios Tsoukos (2.05) – made bronze the real goal for the Jersey jumper and he saw off the challenge of Gotland’s Gustave Melen with a leap of 1.96.
Although Phelan has recently cleared 2m after a competition had ended, yesterday’s mark is an official PB.Tara Murphy blew away her own doubts by qualifying for the women’s 100m final with second place in her heat.
Her first run of the season brought her a time of 13.05 and a promise of better to come.
‘I’ve had a few injury niggles and thought about pulling out, but I’m pleased I competed now,’ she said after finishing a comfortable second to Guernsey’s Danielle Troke.
Another Sarnian, Emma Batiste, looks a real threat to any prospective champions after winning her heat in 12.77.
Ciara Ahern finished fifth in the same heat, recording 13.46.Both Jersey sprinters in the 200m qualified for today’s semi-finals, Kieran Palmer winning his heat in 22.98 and Matt Turner finishing second to Guernsey’s Ryan de Haaff in 23.5.Paul Derrien found the opposition a bit too big and himself a little too rusty in the shot, but it was an event he was, in fact, using to wind up for the hammer and discus events later in the programme.
Erik Larsson of Gotland won with a throw of 14.80m, with Derrien seventh with 10.94m.Greenland’s master distance runner Kim Godtfredsen romped to 10,000m gold in 31.30.09.Guernsey’s big hope in the athletics programme is, of course, Commonwealth Games star Dale Garland, but it was his brother Lee that struck athletics gold first, with a well-measured victory in the 3,000m, from a game Daniel Hejdstrom of Gotland.
Isle of Man’s Andy Fox took bronze.Dale’s time will undoubtedly come, but Jersey’s Peter Irving will be hoping it won’t be in the final of the 400m hurdles, which both qualified for with ease in the final track heats of the evening, Irving winning his in 56.01 sec.
