Day 3 of Trinbago 2023 brought lots of excitement and success on both the Rugby pitch and the Beach Volleyball court, with athletes battling the intense heat to come away with wins. Athletics got underway for the first time and the cyclists were back in action in the road race.

Our Rugby 7s team were up against the mighty Fijians in the morning session of the competition and put in a fantastic shift against a formidable side but unfortunately fell short, loosing 32-5.

Up next in the afternoon session, the boys were up against another challenging side in the South Africans, who were unbeaten in the competition so far. With record temperatures, the game kicked off and both teams came out hard and the score was ties 12-12 at half time. Going into the final 90 seconds, the team trailed by 5 points and needed at least a try to tie the game and a conversion to win. With a turnover at the other end of the pitch, the boys remained calm and managed to break through the South African defence, with Fergus Watson scoring the winning try and Matthew Urwin clinching the win with the conversion.

Over on the Beach Volleyball courts, our Scottish women’s pair, Iona and Sasha, were in the playoff match up against Vanuatu, with a place in the the quarter finals up for grabs. After leading in the opening points, the girls lost the first set 17-21. With the heat being a challenge for all teams today, the girls had a tough road ahead but stormed to victory in the second set 21-12 and battled the elements to take the third and final set 15-13. A truly exceptional effort from both girls to take their first win of the tournament.

At the Hasley Crawford Stadium, venue for the Opening Ceremony, the Athletics competition got underway. Lidya Woldeselassie, youngest memeber of Team Scotland at just 14, made history by becoming the first athlete to represent Team Scotland in a para-sport event at a Commonwealth Youth Games. She performed superbly, reaching the final of the T35-38 100m where she finished seventh in a personal best of 19.14 seconds. Also in action was Millie McClelland-Brooks who qualified comfortably for tomorrow’s 1500m final, finishing 4th in her semi-final with the top six progressing automatically.

Millie Thomson, Evie White, Elliot Rowe and Joe Cosgrove were back in action in the Cycling road race following the time trial on Saturday. The the women’s race, Evie took 7th while Millie did not finish. In the men’s race Elliot took ninth and Joe 13th, behind gold medallist Oisin Ferrity of Northern Ireland.