Mountain bikers' joy at team gold at Island Games

Manx duo Kirree Quayle and Sacha Horsthuis took top spot in the women's team event

The Isle of Man have secured gold in the women’s team mountain bike criterium at the Island Games in Guernsey.

Kirree Quayle also won the bronze medal in the individual event.

Her score combined with team-mate Sacha Horsthuis’s eighth place meant the duo came out on top overall, narrowly beating second place Guernsey.

Horsthuis said: “All I could hear was ‘go Isle of Man’ throughout the whole course, that just makes it feel even more special.”

Kirrie Quayle won a gold and bronze medal in the mountain biking event on Tuesday

“I’ve had text from mum saying she’s crying,” Horsthuis said.

Quayle said her parents, who were cheering at the Delancey Park track, were also “made up”.

“The whole the team are also over the moon,” she said.

The duo, who also coach and train together, are the only two women representing the Isle of Man in the cycling team at the Games.

The pair said it felt "really special" to claim the gold medals together

Quayle said they had been “hoping for a team medal, but gold wasn’t in our minds".

"To come away with that, you can't ask for more," she added.

On her individual performance, the bronze medalist said she had been determined to clinch a podium position after coming fourth place in two races at the Gotland Games in 2017.

She said: “When I was lying in fourth for 99% of the race, I was like it’s not happening, I’m not getting fourth again.”

Elliot Baxtor from the men's team (far right) is competing in his ninth games

The men’s team also secured team bronze in the mountain bike criterium, which included Elliot Baxtor, who also competed in the 2003 Guernsey Games.

This event marks his ninth time representing the Isle of Man at the Island Games and this bronze takes his medal tally to more than 20.