Jai Bean scored a hat-trick as Bermuda’s men’s football team was successful on the opening day of competition at the 2023 Island Games in Guernsey.

Bean led his side to a 7-0 victory over Froya, a municipality of Norway with a population of 5,265, as Bermuda confirmed their status as one of the pre-tournament favourites with an easy win.

Siblings Blaiz and Kashe Hall, who both play for St George’s, were also on the scoresheet alongside Enrique Russell and Razhir Smith-Jones.

Bermuda’s women also began their campaign with a big win against Jersey. Captain Eva Frazzoni scored in the first minute to give the Lady Gombeys the lead with two goals from Jya Ratteray-Smith and a strike from LeiLanni Nesbeth giving Bermuda a 4-0 win,

Elsewhere in Guernsey, sailors Nicole Stovell and Azhai Smith have put themselves into medal contention after day one of competition in the ICLA Class 6.

Stovell sits in fourth position after achieving finishing positions of third and seventh in her two races, with Smith in eighth of the 23-strong field after finishing seventh and ninth in the two races. The regatta continues today.

Bermuda’s men’s tennis team secured a bronze-medal after making it into the semi-finals after a hard-fought 2-1 win over Isle of Man. James Finnigan put them on the path to victory when winning a deciding tie-break before Christopher Weeks was beaten in straight sets. That set up a crucial doubles match, which Finnigan and Gavin Manders won 10-6 in the final-set tie-break.

In the semi-final, Bermuda were beat 2-0 by No1 seeds Jersey.

William Green finished sixteenth in the men’s individual triathlon. Elizabeth Brewin performed well to finish ninth in the women’s individual event with Meghan Diel just three places behind in twelfth.

J. Andrew Pereira and James David finished seventh of the nine countries to compete in the Men’s Olympic Skeet shooting final with a score of 78.

Bermuda’s badminton squad finished their first day of team competition on a high when beating Froya 5-0.

Aaron Simmons won the men’s singles when beating Lars Larsen 2-0 and Emma Moran-Lee doubled Bermuda’s lead when winning the women’s singles in straight sets.

Simmons and Daljeet Singh Gadiwale were then dominant in the men’s doubles before Somers Stevenson and Satya Darrell ran out easy winners of the women’s doubles. Captain Danial Hughes then teamed up with Jin Sun to complete the sweep.

The result puts Bermuda in fourth place in the five-team group D after they started with two heavy losses.

They lost the first match 5-0 against Isle of Man with Singh Gadiwale and Stevenson beaten in straight sets in the singles matches and the men’s doubles pairing of Hughes and Simmons beaten by the same margin.

Dezirae Darrell and Satya Darrell also lost both sets to their opponents in the women’s doubles with Singh Gadiwale and Moran-Lee losing 21-9, 21-5 in the mixed doubles.

In the second match against Isle of Wight, they fared little better, with Simmons beaten in straight sets in the men’s singles. Moran-Lee lost a tight game 2-1 against Isabelle Honnor, with Simmons and Singh Gadiwale beaten 2-0 in the men’s doubles. Dezirae Darrell and Jin Sun failed to pick up a set in the women’s doubles with Isle of Wight completing their victory when David Anderson and Jacob Gilbert beat Hughes and Sun.