Christa Cain claimed her second gold of the week in Wednesday evening’s 5,000 metres.

Unlike Sunday’s 10,000 metres victory, this was no canter as the Douglas athlete was pushed all the way by Orkney’s Anna Tait who was roared home to silver by the partisan home crowd at the Pickaquoy track.

Cain’s winning margin was just over eight seconds as she crossed the line in a time of 16 minutes and 43.02 seconds on what was her maiden race at the distance on the track.

The top two were comfortably ahead of the rest of the field, Shetland teenager Layla Todd grabbing bronze just over half a minute down on Tait.

After the second success of a very impressive Games debut, Cain admitted she hadn’t planned to run as hard as she did with one eye on Friday morning’s half-marathon.

‘I had to work harder than I anticipated for that one - that wasn't the plan tonight.

‘Anna, clearly, is on very good form. I could hear the gap closing down every time I went down that bottom corner, the home crowd was going wild, and I knew it wasn't for me on this occasion.

‘I went a lot faster than I wanted to, but that’s the way it went.’

Cain is confident the extra excursion won’t effect her efforts to complete a hat-trick of golds later in the week.

‘I train really high volume at home - I probably average in a marathon block about 100 miles a week so I should be okay.

‘Within that I do two speed sessions a week and probably one heavy marathon session on a Sunday, so the legs are quite well adapted to the faster running, just not running in loops!

‘The right hand side of my body was definitely feeling it after Sunday.

‘I'm just gonna do a little shake out and just get everything flowing again this evening ahead of Friday.’

Joining Cain in Friday’s half-marathon are Dawn Atherton and Emily Mylchreest, while taking part in the men’s race are Corrin Leeming, who won gold in the men’s 10,000 metres on Monday, plus Jordan Cain and Mark Burman.

The race, which takes place around the hilly streets of Kirkwall, starts just after 9am.

- Sprinter Meghan Pilley finished fifth in Wednesday evening’s 200m final.

The Manx Harriers athlete ran a time of 25.33s, which was just outside the season’s best of 25.3. This was despite her suffering from cramp.

Earlier in the week Pilley finished sixth in the 100m, just behind compatriot Carla Teece in fifth.

Both races were won by the Games’ poster girl, Orkney’s Taylah Paterson. With victory in the 200m on Thursday, Paterson became the first female athlete to do the sprint double at an Island Games since Bermuda’s Taahira Butterfield in 2015.

Pilley’s attentions will now turn to to the 4x100 and 4x400 relays that round out the week’s action on the track.

- Media Isle of Man’s Island Games 2025 coverage is supported by Benbridge Academy.