2010


Final Day: Not a good day today the relay team finished 4th, 3 seconds slower than the prelims. I can't complain they have been brilliant and won more medals than many of other teams. On the plus side every member of Team Isle of Man is coming home with a medal. Tomorrow is free day it's Tomas Dawe's birthday so we will have a party as we tour of the old part of Warsaw city. see you all soon.
Tomas Dawe adds a silver to his collection coming second in 200 metres would have have been gold if 5 metres further, next up was Jodie Blaney who grabbed the bronze with her last throw. After lunch it was Andrew Richardson who add to our fantastic results by coming second in the Shot put we all thought he was third but the Bosnian lad had a red flag on his throw. News then came in that Lawrence Dyer and David Hudson had won a bronze in the Badminton doubles and then news came that the girls Zoe & Katie had gone one better and won silver. Last day tomorrow and closing ceremony with Lawrence, Katie, Jodie and Tomas carrying the banner representing the Isle of Man. DONT FORGET WE STILL HAVE THE RELAY AT 11am -10 at home in the morning. This has been a very good trip for the IOM every athlete has a medal and competition has been very high the organisation, transport and food have been unbelievable. A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CONTRIBUTED TO OUR SUCESS AND GETTING US HERE FINANCIALY

Special Olympics Badminton team win first ever medal and it's GOLD

The Isle of Man Special Olympics team struck gold in the very first event of the morning here in Warsaw. 18 year old Tomas Dawe from Braddan won Division 10 of the 100 metres with a new personal best time of 16.36 seconds in Division 9 27 year old Andrew Richardson from Douglas just outside the medals in 4^th. Isle of Man Disability Sports personally Paul Clucas won the Islands second medal of the day taking silver in division 13 of the 100 metres. After lunch and next up was 26 year old Jody Blaney from Union Mills who won silver in Division 16 of the Ladies class. Then Paul Clucas capped a very good day for the Manx team by winning the Gold in Division 9 of the Long Jump.

The Badminton team are still competing in the round robin events with Zoe Lambie from Peel and Katie Saunders from Glen Vine on course to take both Gold and Silver in the ladies singles.

Tomorrow Tomas Dawe goes for the double in the 200 metres with Richardson and Blaney taking part in the Shot Putt. The Isle of Man team have already set the fastest time in the relay, the final taking place Thursday afternoon.

Poland - 2nd Day Prelims
First up is Tomas Dawe - 200m 3rd 35.11 (Pb is 34.05) terrible start not his fault
Jody Blaney - Shot 3rd 5.64 metres (PB was 5.20) New Personal Best
Andrew Richardson - Shot 2nd 10.75 metres (PB is 13.08 with 3k)

In the afternoon we did the relay:
Jody Blaney was on first leg and was struggling in 5th place, Tomas Dawe took over on second leg and ran brilliantly to put us in to second place then Paul Clucas sprinted round the bend to take first place and Andrew Richardson held on to give us a fantastic victory. A great end to the day and a big confidence boost before the we go for medals.
Badminton tried to watch them after the relay but they had stopped Dave Hudson lost one, Lawrence Dyer, katie Saunders and Zoe won one. Lawrence lost to someone he should not have played. Will try and update results on Badminton ASAP.

A FEW PHOTO's on my collection page >>

Poland - Preliminary Rounds results
Tomas Dawe - 100m 5th 17.99 (PB is 17.30
Andrew Richardson - 100m 2nd 15.83 (PB was 16.50) New Personal Best
Paul Clucas - 100m 4th 19.43 (PB 19.00)
Jody Blaney - 100m 5th 22.00 (PB 20.00)

Paul Clucas - Long Jump 5th 2metres 21 cen (PB 2.40)

Good start, need to be beating PBs if we are going to bring home medals, Shot Putt tomorrow. Team tired after late night all having a sleep now to catch up on rest.

Badminton don't know until mid night (19/09/10) their division they did well in tests today.

ISLE OF MAN SPECIAL OLYMPICS

TRIP TO GIBRALTAR NATIONAL GAMES

1st June to 4th June 2010

MANX SPECIAL OLYMPIANS ON THE ROCK

Special Olympics Isle of Man was celebrating the return of its squad from Gibraltar last Friday after competing for the fourth year running in the Gibraltar National Games, which this year proved to be the most successful yet. Sixteen Manx athletes, all with learning disabilities, travelled down to Gibraltar for the week to participate in athletics, swimming and five-a-side football competitions against international opposition from teams from Iceland, Spain and the hosts Gibraltar. Our athletes put in a fantastic performance bringing home a host of medals. Always a popular event, it was more significant this year being the 25^th Anniversary of the Gibraltar Special Olympics organisation and the Games were started with a highly entertaining opening ceremony on the Tuesday evening incorporating local dance groups and singers in the impressive venue of St Michael’s Cave. The following day the four Isle of Man athletes, coached by Tom Davies, put in a highly impressive performance in the track and field events. In the first race of the day Glen Leece claimed a good gold in the first 100m sprint. Peter Taylor had a closer race against a Gibraltarian runner in the second race and the two could not be separated on the line, both being awarded joint gold medal position. Manxman Duncan Watterson came in with the bronze medal in the same race. In the 200m sprint Stephen Molnar won an impressive silver medal. Meanwhile in the field Peter Taylor won his second gold medal of the Games in the first running long jump event with Glen Leece coming second, whilst Stephen Molnar claimed gold in the second running long jump event. Duncan Watterson ensured a full set of individual gold's for our athletes by winning the shot put event. The highlight of the afternoon though was the 4 by 100m relay in which all four athletes participated. The Manx runners established an early lead but a strong Gibraltar team fought back and in a thrilling last leg Stephen Molnar just managed to hang on to the lead with the Manx team winning by a margin of less than one second. Earlier in the day the Manx football team, coached by Mick Curran and Michelle Jones, had started well with a win against Spain by 3 goals to 2 after a hat trick by Daniel Kelly. They then had to face strong opposition from Gibraltar and Iceland though and despite 4 goals from Manxman John Stephens they lost the games 4 – 1 and 9 – 4 respectively, and were awarded the bronze medal position.

The swimming events on the last day produced another great performance from the Manx swimmers with Oliver Riddel winning the 25m breast stroke and coming second in the 25m freestyle. Andrew McGeehan won the 25m freestyle gold and claimed another one in the 50m freestyle. Katie Dulson was awarded bronze medal in the 25m breast stroke and came 4^th in the 25m freestyle whilst Justine Perry claimed two 4^th positions in the 50m breast stroke and 50m freestyle. The team together won the bronze medal for the 4 by 25m relay. Isle of Man head of delegation Beryl Wooldridge said “this is the fourth year running that we have come to the Gibraltar National Games and yet again our athletes have responded to the challenge and put in some fantastic performances. The Games themselves were enjoyable and highly organised, and the people of Gibraltar were as hospitable as ever. We look forward to being able to welcome Gibraltar to our National Games in the Isle of Man on the 9th of July.”

Andy Ramage
Assistant Head of Delegation

SOME OF TOM'S GIBRALTAR PHOTO'S

Andrew McGeehan, Ollie Riddle and Katie Dulson
Coach with team Barry Dulson (not in photo)

SWIMMING RESULTS:

Andrew McGeehan

GOLD 25 metres Freestyle

GOLD 50 metres Freestyle

BRONZE Relay

Ollie Riddle

GOLD 25 metres Backstroke

SILVER 25 metres Freestyle

BRONZE Relay

Katie Dulson

BRONZE 25 metres Backstroke

BRONZE Relay

4^th 25 metres Freestyle

Justine Perry

Bronze Relay

4^th 50 metres Backstroke

4^th 50 metres Freestyle

Daniel Kelly, John Stephens, Jenny Jones, Stuart Marquies, Mark Henry, Chelsea Scott, Gareth Cowin, Jason Fox

Coach's with team Mick Curran & Michelle Jones (not in photo)

TEAM ISLE OF MAN WIN BRONZE IN FOOTBALL

GIBRALTAR 4 - 1 ISLE OF MAN

SPAIN 2 - 3 ISLE OF MAN

ICELAND 9 - 4 ISLE OF MAN

Team Isle of Man finished third in the Football competition

Athletics Team

Glen Leece, Peter Taylor, Duncan Watterson and Stephen Molnar

Coach with team Thomas Davies (not in photo)

Peter Taylor:
GOLD         Long Jump
GOLD         100 metres
GOLD         Relay
Stephen Molnar:
GOLD         Long Jump
GOLD         RELAY
SILVER       200 metres
Duncan Watterson:
GOLD         Shot
GOLD         Relay
SILVER      100 metres
Glen Leece:
GOLD         100 metres
GOLD         Relay
SILVER       Long Jump

The Athletics team have won 7 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze medal tonight (Wednesday) in the Victoria Park Stadium, Gibraltar.

15 year old Peter Taylor takes pride of place winning three gold's in his category, Long Jump, 100 metres and helping the Manx team to win the relay by 100th of a second. Stephen Molnar from Port Erin won Gold in the Long Jump improving his PB to 4. 37 metres, Silver in the 200 metres and Gold running the last leg of the relay.

Duncan Watterson from Castletown making his debut for the Island won the Gold in Shot Putt, Silver in the 100 metres and Gold in the relay running the first leg. Last minute replacement Glen Leece also had a fantastic debut for the Island winning the 100 metres in his category and Silver in Long Jump and Gold in the relay team Leece had struggled with change over's in training, I'm told tonight he was perfect. Team Manager for the trip was Thomas Davies sent out by his father Graham for the experience. It looks like he is a chip of the old block.