Isle of Man Athletics has announced the management team for the 2027 Island Games in the Faroe Islands and also for the forthcoming Youth Development League season.

Petra Atchison will be the Island Games team manager, continuing the role she has carried out for the past two Games in Guernsey and Orkney. She will be supported by assistant managers Steve Partington and Hannah Riley.

As well as managing the team, Atchison has done a huge amount of unseen work behind the scenes, not least with fundraising and organising kit.

Partington represented the Isle of Man six times as a race walker at the Commonwealth Games and has added his vast knowledge and experience of international competition to the Island Games management team for the past three Games in Gibraltar, Guernsey and Orkney.

He was also a gold medallist in race walking in the very first Island Games in 1985.

Riley is new to a management role for the Island Games, but there are few with greater knowledge of the event.

During her career as a competitor at the Games, which stretched from 1999 to 2019, she won 12 individual medals - four of them gold - and many more as part of relay teams. She will be an excellent addition to the management team.

Isle of Man Athletics has also confirmed that Alice Bell has been appointed as the new manager of the Youth Development Team and she will be assisted by Steven Dorricott.

Bell is also a very successful competitor and has represented the Isle of Man in throwing events at two Island Games, with two fourth-place finishes in the hammer.

A natural leader, she has also competed many times over the years in the Youth Development League and the Northern League.

Dorricott is well known in local athletics as both a competitor and organiser for Northern AC.

DAVID GRIFFITHS