The Isle of Man’s swimming team grabbed a final-night haul of five Island Games medals on Thursday.

Among the haul was a silver for the mixed 4x50m freestyle relay team of Chloe Batty, Harry Robinson, Joel Watterson and Laura Kinley.

For the latter it was her fourth medal of the week and her 40th of an Island Games career stretching back 14 years and seven Island Games.

The 29-year-old, who was the Team Isle of Man’s flag bearer for the Games’ opening ceremony, was delighted with her week’s work.

Reflecting on the competition in Orkney, she said: ‘It's been amazing.

‘The whole team swam incredible this week.

‘I've been really happy to win four medals, two individual and two relay, and having the opportunity to stand on the top of the podium with the winning medley team and hear the national anthem was incredible.’

Gold in the 50m medley relay and silver in the 50m freestyle relay join individual silver medals for the 100m and 50m breaststroke in Kinley’s carry-on luggage.

Kinley, however, stated her biggest achievement was just making it to the games in the first place after missing a large chunk of last year through injury.

‘I've had a tough year coming into this with injury. I didn't swim for six months last year. It's been hard getting back into it.

‘There's been a lot of people who have supported me to get back to where I am.

‘I didn’t think I’d be able to swim the sort of times I did and I even set a personal best in the last relay race.

‘It's been really special, but the biggest win of this week was being here and just being able to perform and represent the Isle of Man one more time. To come away with four medals - I'm over the moon.’

Kinley said her team had been determined to help her sign off with a relay medal, their efforts dubbed ‘Project 40’.

After setting the fastest time in the heats, the quartet battled back after initially trailing to finish less than half a second behind gold medal winners the Cayman Islands to complete their special mission.

For the last day of the competition, the Manx swimmers donned their ‘SuperManx’ t-shirts to remember former team manager Leonie Cooil who sadly passed away in 2018.

Leonie started the tradition back in 2011 at Laura’s first games in the Isle of Wight, making her 40th medal even more poignant.

Will there be another crack at a 41st medal? Kinley is undecided and it could be that that swim in the Pickaquoy pool was her last dance with the Island Games swimming team.

However, she did say: ‘I think I said in 2019 that would be my last. So, never say never.’

Of the other medals won on the last evening, Kinley’s fellow team captain Joel Watterson picked up his first individual gold of the meet in the men’s 50m freestyle.

In a frantic finale to the race, team-mate Harry Robinson claimed bronze. This was his second of the night after earlier in the evening finishing third in the men’s 100m backstroke.

Robinson was also part of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team that struck gold in that race.

He teamed up with Watterson, Zach Bellhouse and Magnus Kelly to win in a time of 3:20.67, which was agonisingly close to the Games record of 3:20.65 set by Cayman 12 years ago.

It was Bellhouse and Kelly’s fourth relay gold of an impressive games.

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