Team Isle of Man remain in contention to top the medal table at this year’s NatWest Island Games in Gotland.

With only one day of action left at this year’s event - on Friday - the IoM lie second in the table only two gold medals behind leaders Faroe Islands.

Thursday proved to be another fruitful day and, unsurprisingly, the Manx cycling team led the way with another healthy medal haul.

Kirree Quayle agonisingly missed out on a bronze medal when she finished fourth in the women’s mountain bike criterium but, with Emma Atkinson and Emily Looker finishing seventh and eighth, the women claimed a team silver.

The men’s team then went even better as they clinched gold in a thrilling crit race just outside the old city walls of Visby.

Spurred on by agonisingly missing out on gold in the cross country race two days earlier, Nick Corlett delivered a superbly-timed sprint finish to edge past James Roe to claim the top step on the podium.

Elliot Baxter narrowly missed out on another Island Games podium as he crossed the line in fourth, one place ahead of team-mate Danny Curtis while Alex Rockwell was 11th and Lee Gale 14th.

The results ensured that, like Tuesday’s cross country race, the men clinched team gold to go with Corlett’s individual success.

The Manx swimmers ended a successful week at the pool with more medals at Solbergabadet, Guy Davies clinching his third individual gold of this year’s Games when winning the men’s 200m breaststroke.

Emma Hodgson, Laura Kinley, Kazia Whittaker and Olivia Marshall then claimed silver in the women’s 4x100m medley relay, a feat repeated by the men in the subsequent 4x100m freestyle relay.

The final swimming event of this year’s Games was the 4x50m mixed relay which saw Hewison, Kinley, Marshall and Watterson team up to clinch another silver, the Isle of Man’s 25th swimming medal at the 2017 event.

There was joy (pun intended) for the island’s archers as the team of Joy Gough, Billy Lightfoot, Dave Moore, Rhys Moore and Ethan Moore who combined to claim a fine bronze in the compound team head-to-head, beating Jersey 197-190.

At the athletics track, Joe Reid clinched a bronze of his own as he ended third in the men’s 400m race, a contest won by the Cayman Islands’ Jamal Walton in a new Island Games record.

Brandon Atchison was fourth in the men’s 100m race while Sara Watterson was fifth in the women’s 400m hurdles.

Elsewhere, the island’s badminton players were in the thick of the action across various knockout stages.

Jessica Li and Kim Clague were the stars of the show as they safely negotiation their way through the women’s singles quarter-finals and, while Clague lost to Rannvá Djurhuus Carlsson of the Faroes, Li defeated the latter’s compatriot Kristina Eriksen to book her place in Friday’s final.

Clague’s disappointment was short-lived though as she teamed up with Li and won their women’s doubles semi against Guernsey’s Elena Johnson and Chloe Le Tissier and will now go up against Gotland’s very own Viktoria Olsson Meimermondt and Caroline Gate.

There was a similar story in the tennis at the same Rackethallen venue as Laura Feely saw off the challenge of Menorca’s number eight seed Joanna Dyer to book her place in Friday morning’s final.

It will be a busy day for Feely as she will also team up with Karen Faragher to contest the women’s doubles final at midday. At the same time, Elena Snidal and Katie Harris will be in action in the women’s doubles plate final on the adjacent court.

With the men and women’s football teams both in finals action (see separate reports) the last day of the 17th NatWest Island Games promises to be a fantastic finale and one which could propel the Isle of Man back to the top of the medal table.

Watch this space...