Strong individual efforts from Team Gib badminton players

Thursday was the last day on the court for Team Gibraltar’s badminton team with the players taking on a powerful morning of mixed doubles.

The first game of the morning had Alison Jessen and Kasper Thy Jessen take on Froya winning their game 2-0 with a score of 21-8 and 21-13. Next up was Amber Prescott and Joshua Montado against Gotland, which they also won 2-0 with a score of 21-15 and 21-18.

Cielo Mapatac and Chi Leong Sou faced Bermuda but lost their game 2-0 with a score of 21-13 and 21-16.

The next round saw Alison and Kasper take on the home team Orkney, where they lost 2-0 with a score of 21-17 and 21-14.

Amber and Joshua took on Greenland, also losing 2-0, with a score of 21-9 and 21-8.

The loses marked the end of the Island Games for the team but Gibraltar’s national coach Charles Avellano highlighted strong individual and team events despite some disappointing results, particularly against the Caymans.

He noted that players like Joshua, Cielo, and Amber showed promising potential and they faced tough competition but performed well, with many matches going to close sets.

“It's been an interesting week,” Mr Avellano said.

“We've had some very good games in the team events. We were a little bit unlucky against the Caymans, which we were hoping to win, potentially 4-1 or 3-2, they played very well, and they just edged us out.”

“We've had some excellent performances from Josh, who's come in this time around, from Cielo as well, who's in this event for the first time around, Amber did really well yesterday in the singles and the plate events to get to the semi-finals.”

“Overall, it's been very strong performances.”

“Unfortunately, results haven't just been where we've wanted them to be, but there's been a lot of promising potential that I've seen to take to go into the next games, especially as I was bringing some newer players into the fold as well. So it's been very promising at least.”

He spoke about a team such as the one from the Cayman Islands where are a very strong team. But, he said, in every match that they played - for example men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles - virtually all the matches were really close going to three sets.

Against Menorca, who are also a strong team, they just lost out to but still the matches were very close.

“It shows that we have the ability to get there,” he said.

“It's just, unfortunately, this time around, we just got edged out in the critical matches.”

“But the performances were really strong.”

It was both the first Island Games for Joshua and Cielo, but Mr Avellano said “they've run straight into it almost like seasoned players.”

He also praised the team for their court side performance and how supportive everyone was for each other.

“With Badminton is that it's almost a little bit like a family,” he said.

“In fact, it is, in some ways. It is a family because it's myself, my sister, my brother in law, Chantal, who's my partner, hasn't come this time around, is also involved in badminton, but we're all very close.”

“We've known each other for many years. We always support each other. We always have a good laugh when we're on tour.”

“We know how to switch on as well, but then everyone's backing the the team the whole way through. So we have always got a very tight knit group.”

Mr Avellano is a former player and has taken part in four Island Games and, he said, being courtside is more stressful than being on the court.

“I tell you what, I thought that coming this week, I was going to sit and watch some matches. It's been way more stressful being the coach,” he said.

“It's been literally, attend the hall at 8.30 in the morning, focus on every single game, focus on the tactics, focus on who we're playing next.”

“Try and support the players until about 7 or 8pm every day. So it's been pretty much a workout for me in a different way.”

Now that the Island Games has finished for the team their next focus will be in the Small States competition, due to be held in Faro next year.

This experience will not only give them more exposure to international matches but also a taste of what playing in Faroe Islands is like as the Island Games 2027 is due to be held there.