Island Games: 'No alternative' than to put Guernsey event back to 2023

Guernsey's Footes Lane stadium was upgraded in preparation for the Island Games being held in 2021

The head of the International Island Games Association says there was no choice but to postpone next year's event until 2023.

Guernsey was due to host the Island Games in 2021 but the Covid-19 pandemic has seen the event put back two years.

It will be the first time Guernsey has hosted the biennial Games since 2003.

"Having looked into the development of the pandemic and all the risks, there was no alternative but to go for 2023," said IIGA chairman Jorgen Pettersson.

"We have looked into all sorts of alternatives, but this is the final one, and at the end of the day maybe it will be the best way to deal with it, to give the islands enough time to come back after this crisis," he added to BBC Radio Guernsey.

The 2021 Island Games were postponed in September with Guernsey invoking strict travel restrictions and quarantine rules which has seen the Channel Island experience only a very low coronavirus rate.

Having been the venue of the second Island Games in 1987, Guernsey will become the first place to host the event for a third time when it eventually takes place in 2023.

About 3,500 competitors and officials from small islands across the world and 1,000 volunteers were set to take part next year.

"We can stop planning for things like social distancing, we had been looking at potentially putting tracking devices on competitors," Guernsey's Island Games director Julia Bowditch explained.

"Now we can look for 2023, start getting a date for the summer of 2023 and we can really start moving forward.

"One of the issues that we were having with 2022 in regards to planning was how congested the sports calendar was," she added to BBC Radio Guernsey.

"We'll start working with all the sports to get a date, rebooking all the venues and visits out to all the hotels to make sure that we can hold all the rooms that we were holding for 2021.

"We've got many, many steps to continue the planning for the Games."