Jersey swimmers delivered a record-breaking performance at the 2025 Orkney Island Games, rewriting the history books across multiple disciplines in a display of dominance and determination.
Competitors from the Channel Islands shattered longstanding records in the pool, setting new benchmarks for excellence, underlining Jersey’s continued rise as a sporting powerhouse on the international island stage.
With personal bests and impressive team totals, the Games will be remembered as one of the most successful in Jersey’s modern sporting era for the records broken in Orkney.
17-year-old Filip Nowacki cemented himself as the one to watch over the coming years as he showcased remarkable potential.
Th ex-Victoria College pupil broke an exceptional five Island Games records. Nowacki even set a record in the heats in two of his races and continued to smash his own record later on in the finals.
Nowacki’s preferred discipline is evidently Breaststroke, as the young star won gold in the 50m, 100m and the 200m Breaststroke, beating Jerseyman, Ian Black’s previous records in the process.
Nowacki swam a 27.21s which nudged him 0.59s in front of Black’s record. As the races got longer, the margin of Nowacki’s wins increased. Black’s 100m record was beaten by 2.14s as Nowacki raced ahead with a 58.10s swim.
Nowacki’s third Breaststroke record was the most impressive. The record stood at 2:14.82s, set by the Faroe Islands’ Pal Joensen. Nowacki swam an incredible 2:05.89s to destroy the standing record.
Nowacki’s unstoppable form carried seamlessly into the Individual Medley events, where he delivered one of the standout performances of the Games.
In the 100m, he edged out a long-standing record held by the Cayman Islands’ Shaune Fraser, touching in 54.25 seconds to surpass Fraser’s 54.42 mark set a decade ago.
The significance of the achievement was clear, Fraser is a three-time Olympian, and yet it was Nowacki who emerged victorious, underlining his immense potential on the international stage
Nowacki’s final record saw him beat another fellow Jerseyman in Harry Shalamon. The 200m Medley record now belongs to Nowacki. Touching in 1:59.17s narrowly edged Shalamon’s 2:00.35s from 2019.
Jersey’s sixth and final Island Games record came, fittingly, in the pool, and it was no surprise to see Nowacki playing a key role.
He teamed up with Isaac Thompson, Isaac Dodds, and Samuel Sterry to power Jersey to victory in the 4x100m Medley Relay, smashing the island’s previous Games record by an impressive four seconds.
That record had stood since the 2015 Games, but the quartet’s dominant performance firmly raised the bar for future teams
