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Published: December 2008
In March 2009, Phil Austin was appointed Chairman of the Jersey Island Games Bid Committee. His role is to head up the campaign to bring the 2015 Games to Jersey.
Jersey is not new to this process. The island hosted a very successful Games back in 1997. Competitors from as far away as Bermuda, the Falkland Islands and St Helena were among those who came to Jersey to help raise the profile of our sporting islands and to compete at a high level.
Phil Austin commented: “Whilst 2015 seems like a long way away, we have to put a bid forward in July 2010. I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to lead this campaign and will be pulling together a team of specialist professionals who will, collectively, deliver on a bid that we hope will make us successful.”
He added: “Jersey has excellent facilities – not just sports facilities, but great accommodation, entertainment, transport and restaurants as well. We would be proud to share these with fellow islanders from around the world.”
The International Island Games Association is made up of 25 member islands who come together every two years to compete in friendly competition in up to 14 sports.
Editors' notes
About the Island Games
The ‘Inter-Island’ Games were born in the Isle of Man in 1985, with the intention of bringing together a number of small islands from different parts of the world in friendly competition as part of the Isle of Man’s Year of Sport.
Athletes came from as far afield as Iceland and Scandinavia in the northern hemisphere, the British Isles and the Mediterranean, all the way down to St Helena in the South Atlantic. In total, 15 islands took part.
The idea was to provide an opportunity for hundreds of young sportsmen and women from small island communities, to compete and enjoy international competition against other islanders with similar standards of performance.
Other benefits of such a unique festival of sport are the opportunities for cultural exchange and social interaction with visiting teams, and to establish new lifelong friendships with fellow islanders.
In many ways, sporting competition is only one aspect of the success of this event. Just as important are the opportunities it affords to share thoughts and experiences relating to our unique island stories. With that in mind, the theme for our advertising has been NatWest – bringing islands together.
The Festival was such a success that it was agreed to continue it every other year, with Guernsey hosting the Games in 1987. The Games have subsequently been held in the Faroe Islands, Aland, Isle of Wight, Gibraltar, Jersey, Gotland (in 1999, the first Games of NatWest Offshore’s sponsorship), Isle of Man, Guernsey, Shetland Islands and Rhodes.
The number of islands participating has grown substantially, and now 25 islands are members of the International Island Games Association.
Venues for Island Games
Aland in 2009
Isle of Wight 2011.