Final Jersey Acorn Commonwealth Games Team announcement

The Jersey Acorn Commonwealth Games validation sub-committee have added the final three names to the 29 who were selected last month to represent the Island on the Gold Coast next April.

Ollie Turner was chosen to take part in the sprint triathlon and two swimmers, Gemma Atherley and Harry Shalamon, were selected to swim in the backstroke events. Gemma will focus on the 200m as her main event with Harry aiming for the 50m and 100m events as his priority.

All three will be attending their first games, though Harry had a very successful youth games in Samoa in 2015. All three will also be off-island in the build up to the games as the swimmers return to their American colleges after Christmas and plan to fly from the USA to the Gold Coast in March.

Harry swims at Grand Valley State University in Michigan and Gemma is at George Washington University in Washington DC. Both are now in their second year and both have been steadily improving in their new programmes.

Ollie, meanwhile, will be moving to the Gold Coast in February where he has a place at Griffiths University on a business studies course. He will start his training in Australia as soon as he moves, having approximately seven weeks before the rest of the team start to arrive.

Paul du Feu, CGAJ President, said: “We are delighted to have added two more sports to the Jersey team. This gives up representation in shooting, lawn bowls, athletics, badminton, cycling, gymnastics, swimming and triathlon. The 33rd slot hasn’t been filled, though there may be members who decide to appeal. The CGAJ would like to take this opportunity to thank the validation committee who had the unenviable task of going through all the paperwork and making the comparisons between the applicants in order to come up with the Jersey team. It was time-consuming and challenging.”

He added, “Our Chef de Mission and GTM will now finalise the support staff who will look after the team at the games and work through all the logistics that go with moving such a diverse group to the other side of the world. As we come to the end of this phase of the programme and the end of 2017, I’d like to once again say a massive thank you to our sponsors Acorn who have invested so generously in the new process we put in place at the end of 2015. So many people, including many athletes who have not been selected, have benefited and learned from this extended programme. We move forwards into 2018 hoping that everyone involved will meet their goals and find the whole experience rewarding.”