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Isle of Man allocated extra place for Gold Coast

Fri, 26 Jan 2018

The Isle of Man has been allocated an additional place on its team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, which take place in April in Gold Coast, Australia.

The 32-strong team was unveiled earlier this month by the Isle of Man Commonwealth Games Association.

However, the IOM CGA has heard early last week that it had been allocated another place, bringing the total to 33 athletes.

Isle of Man Commonwealth Games President Basil Bielich explained: ‘In September we were advised that not all countries taking part in the Games would be taking their full quota of athletes and some events were undersubscribed. We applied for additional spaces and were delighted to learn that the Isle of Man has been awarded one extra place.

‘On Monday (January 29th) we will announce which athlete has been chosen to join the team, which will fly out to Australia from March 19th, followed by a week of acclimatisation in the Sunshine Coast before moving to the athletes’ village in Gold Coast.’

Chef de Mission Leonie Cooil, who will lead the support team, said: ‘Selecting the team was such a difficult task. There were 43 athletes that met the qualifying criteria, and we could only select 32. It is pleasing, therefore, to be able to select an additional athlete and give them the honour of representing the Island.’

Team Champions, Auxesia, Escape the Rock, Manx Telecom, Paysafe, Skanco and SMP Partners, have supported the Isle of Man Commonwealth Games association with the costs involved in getting the team to the Games.

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