MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands Interest Dominates Run-up to Island Games. Sovereignty Issue highlighted at sporting event

With more than one hundred representatives and supporters attending the Island Games in the Isle of Man (from July 7 to 14th), the Falkland Islands was already dominating the headlines before they began.

As nearly 3,000 sports men and women from 22 Islands around the world, with another 3,000 supporters, were converging on the Isle of Man, situated in the Irish Sea at the centre of the British Isles, a front page feature article in the Island's leading newspaper, the Isle of Man Examiner, highlighted the Falklands sports team, published a factual background, a picture and map of the Islands, and gave the Falklands' case for rejection of Argentina's sovereignty claim valuable publicity, thanks to an interview with the Chairman of the Falkland Islands Overseas Games Association, Patrick Watts. He said it is a matter of national pride and importance that the Falklands team attends the games.

"Owing to the Argentine sovereignty claim", he declared, "it is important that we remind people that we are still a British territory and wish to remain so. Politics with us does mix with sport. .. We remind the world that we still exist and are not part of Argentina and wish to remain British".

Mr Watts, who was head of Falklands broadcasting at the time of the 1982 invasion when Argentine soldiers with guns burst into his studio, explained that the Islanders' strong determination to participate in the games, had involved great initiative in arranging fund-raising events for each of the sports represented to meet the high cost, particularly of travel. He paid tribute to the Falkland Islands Government which, he said, is now more aware of the international prestige of the games, giving "generous" for previous participation in 1997 and 1999, and this time £15,000 (22,000 dollars). Of the fifteen sports, the Falklands are competing in six -- shooting, athletics, badminton, golf, football and swimming events.

The Falklands, with a much smaller population than most, won six medals at the last Island Games in Gotland. This time, Patrick Watts said they have been training hard to do better. The newspaper says the golfing team have had coaching from former international Ryder Cup captain , Bernard Gallagher, and one golfer, sheep farmer Leon Marsh even constructed his own golf course to practise. Competing for the first time, the football team has had good practice with games against service teams in the Falklands. The sw