The annual presentation of Duke of Edinburgh gold awards took place at Government House on Thursday.

Lieutenant Governor Sir Richard Gozney presented the 27 award winners with their badges.

To complete the Gold DofE award, each participant must complete the four sections that make up the award.

These are a physical activity, a skill, volunteering, a residential (a week away from home) and an expedition.

Each section must be completed over a period of six to 12 months, with the residential lasting for five days and the expedition for four days. Within each section, there are numerous activities that the young people can choose to do.

Learning to drive, scuba diving, dog grooming and sports coaching were just some of the activities that participants chose to do.

For the young people in the island, the expedition part of the gold award takes place in the UK, but due to the border restrictions this wasn’t possible for all groups.

Alison Barnes, Duke of Edinburgh Award co-ordinator, said: ’They have been very clever with adjusting their activities.

’Instead of doing team sports a lot of the young people chose to do individual sports for their physical section.

’As part of the volunteering section, some of them chose to do home schooling with their younger siblings to help take the burden off their parents.

’Expeditions and residentials were harder as we couldn’t get the young people off the island so they had to create a gold level route on the Isle of Man which was challenging.

’I’m so proud of them, the Duke of Edinburgh award is a challenge at the best of times and to overcome it, and having to adjust things so they can complete their award, I take my hat off to them.

’They’ve taken up the challenge and adapted to suit the circumstances.’

The gold award winners were: Sam Ashworth; Rhys Burrell; Lily Byrne; Lisa Collister; Josh Duncan; Dylan George; Bruce Gimbert; Callan Gooberman; Finn Gooberman: Orry Gooberman; Jonathan Kelsey; Isobel Knop; Rachel Leary; Benjamin Li; James Margrave; Saoirse Matthews; Charles Ntuiabane; Daniel Ntuiabane; Drew Olsen; Owen Perry; Nicole Pressley; Shannon Primrose-Smith; Marcus Reynolds; Cristina Salinardi; Dulcie Teare; Conor Till; Megan Wright.