The 20th Island Games kick off in first-time hosts Orkney on this weekend with the team Isle of Man gunning for gold.

The Games begin in Kirkwall on Saturday teatime with the opening ceremony which is co-presented by daytime TV royalty Lorraine Kelly and presided over by actual royalty, Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, who will officially open the games.

Flag bearer for the island will be Laura Kinley who will be competing in her seventh Games when the swimming competition get under way on Monday, July 14.

Laura made her Games debut in the Isle of Wight in 2011 and has since gone on to win 36 Island Games medals. She has also appeared at three Commonwealth Games for the Isle of Man in 2014, 2018 and 2022, as well as at the Commonwealth Youth Games when they were held in the island in 2011. Indeed she was joint flag bearer with Sir Mark Cavendish for the 2022 event in Birmingham.

Another significant part of the opening ceremony is the water ceremony. This is where each participating island brings water from their shores and then combines them in a symbolic act, representing the unity and shared island identity of the competitors.

The role of ‘water carrier’ is usually given to the team’s youngest member. For the Isle of Man this year it will be gymnast Phoebe Christian, who turns 13 on the day of the opening ceremony - the minimum age to compete. Phoebe is also the youngest of the Games’ near 2,000 athletes.

The sporting action against the 23 other nations begins on Sunday (July 15).

The Isle of Man’s 10 triathletes take centre stage at 11am with their event, which is made up of an open-water swim, 40km cycle and 10km run, based at Stromness Harbour.

The island’s squash and badminton teams will begin their campaigns at the Pickaquoy Centre in the capital of Kirkwall, while on the adjoining athletics track Regan Corrin will be aiming to retain his high jump title and Christa Cain will be among the favourites for the women’s 10,000 metres which takes place at 5.50pm.

The Manx sailing and footballing contingents also begin their bids for glory on Sunday, with the latter facing Hitra in the men’s competition at midday before Gozo are the opponents for the women’s side at 7pm.

On Monday (July 14) the island’s archers begin their competition with 1440 recurve and compound competitions.

There’s more athletics, badminton, squash and sailing, while the Manx gymnastics, golf, swimming and cycling also have their first events of the week.

The island is only sending a men’s team for the latter sport, the time trial for the five-strong team beginning at 12.30pm.

It is made up of a 28-mile there-and-back route along the east coast of the West Mainland.

The footballers will play their second game in as many days with both the women’s and men’s side facing Froya at 3.30pm and 7pm respectively.

Tuesday’s schedule features more of the same, but this time the cyclists’ focus switches to the mountain bike criterium.

Owen Collins, Mark Horsthuis, Eric Kelly and Ross Thornley go for gold from 2.15pm.

In the football, the Manx take on the hosts in what could be two crunch group matches. Both games take place at Kirkwall Grammar School with the women’s team playing at 3.30pm and the men’s side at 7pm.

Cycling’s 61.5 miles men’s road race is one of the main events on Wednesday, while the doubles competitions begin in the squash and reach the quarter-finals in the badminton.

There’s also a host of action in the Pickaquoy Centre pool, with the island’s swimmers aiming to continue their historic impressive record at the Games.

Thursday sees archery’s head-to-head team knockout competition take place, while there’s also plenty of Manx interest in the athletics, swimming, sailing and gymnastics.

The mountain bikers’ cross-country event also takes place on Thursday as does the knockout stages of the football and the final round of the golf.

A busy final day of action on Friday sees two of the Games’ big events in the shape of the half-marathon and cycling’s town criterium.

The football and badminton finals are also scheduled for that day ahead of the closing ceremony at 8pm that night.

Isle of Man team:

Archery

Athletics

Badminton

Cycling

Football

Golf

Gymnastics

Sailing

Squash

Swimming

Triathlon

- Keep up with the action online at www.iomtoday.co.im/island-games and in our print titles throughout the Games.