The honor of representing your country as the Flag-bearer is a highly sought after position. This year the honor of proudly presenting the Island’s Flag at Saturday’s Opening Ceremony of the NatWest Island Games in Jersey goes to top cyclist Dominque Mayho.
The Jersey Games will be Mayho’s third NatWest Island Games appearance, having represented Bermuda in cycling in Isle of Wight in 2011 and Bermuda in 2013. He is currently a member of the ‘Ride With Rendall’ team of Canada, Mayho has been Bermuda national champion in road disciplines and mountain biking. He will compete in the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games in July.
Mayho said, "I'm honored to be selected by the Bermuda Island Games Association to be Bermuda's flag bearer for the 2015 NatWest Island Games.”
The NatWest Games has a unique ceremony, that of the Water Ceremony. In this ceremony every island pours water from their island to mingle with that from all the other islands into a ceremonial vessel. This represents the friendship and camaraderie that the Games bring to this unique collection of island athletes.
This year the person selected to perform this important ceremony on behalf of Bermuda is Katrin Burnie. Burnie is one of the island’s top Female Golfers. This will be her fifth NatWest Island Games. In Rhodes 2007 the golf team won Bronze, in Åland 2009 we won Gold, the Isle of Wight 2011 we came 4th and in Bermuda 2013 we came 5th.
Burnie qualified to play in the Ladies Senior Amateur British Open at West Kilbride GC, Ayrshire, Scotland in 2011 and at Hunstanton GC, Norfolk, England in 2012. She won The Bermuda Amateur Stroke Play in 2010 and 2011, the Ladies Senior Amateur Stroke Play this year, and is the ladies champion of both Ocean View and Mid-Ocean.
It is very appropriate that Burnie is our presenter at this ceremony as her husband Dr. Neil Burnie who died this year was a true lover of our ocean: Neil loved windsurfing and among many medals won he also has the around Bermuda record with 2 hours 11 minutes. Many windsurfers have tried to break the record but no-one has come close as of yet.
In 2011 he got a team together to compete in The NatWest Island Games in Isle of Wight. Neil played his saxophone on the beach and kept everyone entertained. They won Gold in the team event and Scott Mello from Bermuda won individual Bronze. In Bermuda 2013 Neil was again in charge of the windsurfing team and organized a spectacular event at Spanish Point. On a day off he took some of the competitors out on his boat and they went swimming with tiger sharks.
