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Guernsey's delayed Island Games will go ahead in July 2023, it has been confirmed.
It follows the announcement in September that the Guernsey 2021 NatWest International Island Games would be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Guernsey will now host the Games between 8 and 14 July 2023.
"This is when the Games were due to be hosted in Orkney, so most of the islands were already holding the date," said Julie Bowditch, Games Director for Guernsey 2023.
"We have taken some time to liaise with the 14 sports here in Guernsey that will be part of the Games to ensure the dates will work for them. The sporting calendar is still changing due to other events being postponed and moved as a result of the global pandemic, so there will inevitably be an overlap with other events, but hopefully these dates will work for all of the islands and sports."
The organisers were "well advanced" with plans to host the event in 2021, which gives them good foundations as they ramp up preparations for the re-scheduled celebration of island sport.
“As a result of the postponement, we have put a lot of this planning on hold and will be able to pick it up again nearer the actual date. However, there will inevitably be some elements of planning that will need to be started again, and we also need to consider any new guidelines that we will have to implement because of the pandemic.
"At this stage, we do not want to be incurring any unnecessary additional costs, so we will be puttng a lot of things on hold untill nearer to 2023. We will also take the opportunity to review all of the planning we have done so far, revise our costings, branding and communication plans, and address any other issues that may arise between now and 2023.”
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