The International Island Games Association has announced that Guernsey will now host the NatWest Island Games between 8 and 14 July 2023.

The games were due to be staged here this summer, but were called off last September because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In December, the decision was taken to make Guernsey the 2023 hosts.

Now the dates of the competition have been confirmed.

The Chair of the IIGA Jorgen Pettersson said: “I am delighted that Member Islands can now begin looking forward to what will be an exciting summer of sport in 2023 and we would like to thank the Guernsey 2023 Organising Committee for their commitment in making certain the Games are staged and preserving this important competitive opportunity for athletes from our Member Islands.”

Julia Bowditch, Games Director for Guernsey 2023, commented on the date change:

“The 8-14 July 2023 was when the Games were due to be hosted in Orkney, so most of the Islands were already holding the date. 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.

“We were well advanced with plans for the event to be hosted in 2021. 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 putting a lot of things on hold until 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.”