Gibraltar starts competing on Sunday

Sunday July 9 will see the main sporting events of the Guernsey Island Games start with Gibraltar competing across numerous sports.
The first day will see Gibraltar Table Tennis start of with a 9am match against the Isle of Wight.
Gibraltar table tennis are in group A which will see them play against Cayman Islands, Falklands, Greenland, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Isle of Wight.
Also in action will be Louis Philip Baglietto and Anthony Joseph De Soto in the NPA Police Pistol 1 – Open. Adam Alcantara will be sailing in the ILCA 6. Gibraltar’s athletes should also be opening their campaign with some of the heats taking place on the first Sunday. Whilst in badminton Gibraltar open play against host team Guernsey. They will be playing in Group B against Guernsey, Menorca and Ynys Mon.
Tennis will also see the preliminary rounds, with Sunday also seeing the Triathletes compete.
Thomas Lippiett, Philip Macedo, Robert Matto, Charles Walker and Christopher Walker will compete at Rocquaine Bay at 11.50 in the men’s event. With Karyn Barnett, Nicola Bennett, Alexandra Peralta and Portia Walton competing in the women’s category.
The Guernsey2023 NatWest International Island Games opening ceremony will kick off events with competition taking place between July 9 and July 14. The opening ceremony will take place along the Town seafront with some 2,194 athletes expected to parade from North Beach to the Albert Pier.
The opening ceremony and all of the sports events are free for spectators to come and watch.
In total there are 205 events across the six days of live sport, encompassing approximately 480 heats, races, and matches. The venues are dotted all around the island. There will be a total of 14 sports in Guernsey2023. These are archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, bowls, cycling, football, golf, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, and triathlon.
Twenty four island from across the globe will compete – from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic to the Caribbean.
Already Guernsey2023 is being described as the most connected Games ever. Many sports will be livestreamed through their official website. With special software in place that will provide an up-to-the-minute results service showing results just in, rolling results, medal winners, and the medal table.
148 accredited journalists and photographers (62 from Guernsey, 27 from Jersey, and 59 overseas) are expected to be covering the games, including a team from this newspaper.

Calls for subscribers
A call for subscribers for the Guernsey Island Games youtube channel secured that they reached the number required for an open stream this weekend.
The youtube channel had as yet not reached the 1,000 mark which would have secured open livestream access, this seeing Guernsey’s media making a call last week for subscribers. With other Island members echoing the call by re-posting Guernsey Island Games associations social media post, the target figure was reached this weekend.
The organisers are hoping that the games will be livestreamed with greater access for those unable to attend events, especially supporters of the 23 other members Islands who wish to follow events.
The Guernsey 2023 Island Games are the first to be held four years after the last edition with the global pandemic having seen plans for the 2021 games postponed. With the International Island Games Association also looking for a main sponsor as its long-term sponsor’s partnership now expires, the future of the games is seen as being dependent on the response and interest the latest edition gathers. Among one of the key areas being its reach beyond the shores of the hosting member association with livestreaming among one of the key focal areas, as well as broadcasting of events and media coverage.
The calls for subscribers saw calls for the youtube channel to be used also for the next scheduled games in Orkney and Yns Mons as subscribers highlighted that similar issues could be faced by future hosts. This years’ host organisers responding that they would be raising the issue with the international organisation.
The call-out for assistance saw supporters of the games respond positively with subscribers as far as New Zealand helping in reaching the 1,000 figure within a day. By Sunday evening the subscriber numbers had tripled from its 600plus registered when the call-out was made, reaching 1.81k by Sunday evening.