Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Å STORM IN A TEA CUP

Forget the Olympic Games bids, latest news from the Åland Islands - the Donut's adopted rock in the Baltic - concerns the 2009 Island Games. Big controversy between Guernsey and candidateYnys Mon (that's Angelsey to you and me).

From the Guernsey Press:

IT’S four years away, but our best sportsmen and women should be nervous as to where they will have to go for the 2009 Island Games.

The men in suits who run the International Island Games Association are showing further signs that they are getting their priorities wrong ahead of the vote as to where the XIIIth Games will be staged.

Aland, excellent hosts in 1991, are vying with Ynys Mon [Anglesey] to stage the event.

In terms of climate and facilities, the Scandinavians are surely firm favourites to win the vote.

Take that North Welsh people:

...the track and field competition could be held 30 miles away in mainland Wales as Ynys Mon does not have athletics facilities...

I am sure that the Falklands, too, could benefit from improved sporting facilities, but will the Games ever go to the deep South Atlantic? Not on your nelly.
Surely the potential of a warm week in a pretty Scandinavian island at a time when there would be close to 24-hour daylight, will attract the best possible athletes to the biennial event?

Ouch!

Aled Roberts, Anglesey council´s head of leisure service hits back:

"...We do have an athletics track, it is just our changing rooms, spectator seating and car parking are not adequate for the volume demanded by the games. We can certainly succeed to stage the games, and do so in less grand facilities, if needed."

Take that Mr Sweater!

All a storm in a tea cup:

...Guernsey’s Island Games Association vote by a narrow margin to back Ynys Mon’s bid to stage the 2009 event...

We'll be following the vote of the other 24 islands with great interest.

:: Posted by pete @ 20:23