GASA Chairman selected for first Island Games

Guernsey Amateur Swimming Association Chairman Conor Osborough will represent Guernsey at an Island Games for the first time this summer.

The 48-year-old has an impressive swimming CV.

Born and bred in Dublin, he swam for the Irish national team in his teenage years and was a national champion and national record holder in Ireland.

After moving to the UK he was coached by Bill Furness who has just retired as the team GB coach and also coached Rebecca Addlington.

After stopping competing in his early 20's he went on to work with the Irish national team as a sports scientist at European and World Championships as well as the Olympics.

After moving to Guernsey 10 years ago, his kids got into swimming and Conor says he thought "it might make sense for me to go back and start swimming again."

That soon turned into competing in Masters swimming which saw him qualify for the Island Games in Orkney, which he says is: "fantastic".

Conor says he's delighted to be going to his first games as a competitor.

"It's a real good example that people can keep going and come back to sport."

"It's not necessarily a matter of age, I think the interesting thing is how you train and recover as you get older because you can't do the same training programme as a teenager and you've got to fit it all around work."

Conor will swim the individual 50m and 100m butterfly and the 50m and 100m backstroke.

He says the schedule works out well for him as he has one event per day. 

"As I'm older I need slightly more rest than some of the other guys."

Orkney will be Molly Staples third games representing Guernsey at swimming.

She was just 14-years-old for the Gibraltar Games in 2019.

She remembers "absolutely sobbing before one of my races because I was so nervous and that was my first real taste of international competition."

"It was a very scary experience for me."

But third time round it's different and she says she's really excited about Orkney.

"I think it's going to be a good competition."

"A lot of these swimmers, the last time we raced against them was two years ago and a lot can happen in two years; those up and coming ones might be in the mix or getting medals this time."

Molly is feeling prepared for her own games as she says the Guernsey team have such a good training programme.

She will swim the 50m and 100m butterfly, 50m and 100m freestyle and the 100m individual medley.

"The aim is going for finals and personal bests, and if I can get in the mix with those medals that would be really great as well."

The full Guernsey Swim team for Orkney is:

Jonny Beck, Chloe Bown, Sam Cann, James Dickinson, Josh Dunning, Jemima Green, Spike Jinks, Hannah Jones, Luke Le Cras, Cameron Lee, Zachary Maiden, Conor Osborough, Orla Rabey, Tallulah-Mae Rautenbach, Delphine Riley, Elodie Riley, Cooper Robinson, Molly Staples, Tatiana Tostevin, Orianna Wheeler, Ross Yeates