Bermuda tasted gold again in the 2003 Island Games in Guernsey yesterday, their men's swim team winning the 4x50 metre medley relay final.

The team snatched first place from the Faroe Islands with anchor leg Ronald Cowen pulling out all the stops to clinch the victory.

The Island squad ended the day sixth in the medal table with two golds, three silvers and one bronze.

Elsewhere, the women's volleyball players notched their first win, the men's team suffered their first defeat, the badminton team won a match and the basketball side lost out to the Cayman Islands.

But there was disappointment earlier in the day when the young gymnasts lost a gold medal to bureaucracy.

The group were heralded as the best women's team in the Games but still had to be content with a silver medal.

They were pushed into second spot in the team floor and vault competition by the Isle of Man in controversial fashion - with the judges conceding that the five girls were simply head and shoulders above the rest of the islands.

But because the competition was rated at a lower level than in which the girls are used to competing, their superior floors skills counted for nothing as the judges marked them down for a “lack of projection” to the audience.

Judge Jenny Dickinson, speaking after medal ceremony, said Bermuda “were the best on the floor”.

“At a low level contest you can't stretch yourself. The Isle of Man were OK but Bermuda were special. They (Bermuda) were doing things that were too easy for them.”

There was a delay before the medal ceremony as a Bermuda official remonstrated with the judges on their scoring consistency. It is understood that the four judges were amazed when their totals didn't award Bermuda the gold.

Bermuda gymnastics coach Walid Mustafa said: “Their job is to see the best team win gold, even the judges will concede that didn't happen today.

“They had to pick some means of separating the teams so they weighted outward projection very highly instead of focusing on their routines. We got silver and we are proud of that, but gold always tastes better.”

In the swimming, Roy Allen Burch, Michael O'Connor, Graham Smith and Ronald Cowen snatched the gold from the Faroe Islands with Cowen having a fantastic anchor leg. Afterwards he said: “We were all pumped up for this and the guys did brilliantly.”

Earlier, Graham Smith won silver in the 100 metre breaststroke final.

Coach Kathy Cowen paid tribute to the team: “I am really pleased for them. I didn't think Ronald had it in him, I don't know where it came from!”

The women's volleyball team beat Jersey 3-0 and the badminton team also scored an Island Games first, beating the Falkand Islands 3-2 and taking one game off Orkney in a 4-1 defeat in a runners-up match.

Volleyball captain Wendy Gazzard said the team were keyed up for the game after a disappointing 0-3 opening game loss to Saaremaa on Sunday.

“We are elated,” said Gazzard. “We treated this as our medal match. We were completely psyched, we had our game plan and it worked.”

Bermuda won 3-0, with fantastic backing from the benches, preventing Jersey from playing and scoring with some great power to which their opponents had no answer.

“We are aiming to go through to the next stage. Guernsey will be a tough game but if we can stay with them like we did Saaremaa then we will be OK,” added Gazzard.

After staying close in the early stages, the men's basketball team lost 65-82 to Cayman Islands.

In archery, Jeane Butterfield and Irena Peti were sitting in eighth and 11th positions after the FITA single recurve rounds at 70 and 60 metres. The men were down the order, with Paul Harshaw and David Hesketh at 27th and 28th respectively.

Butterfield had a good day after what she described as a poor practice session on Sunday. “It was better than I expected,” she said. “Irena has no experience of tournaments so she has done really well. I am so proud of her.”

For the badminton team, there was some relief after a first day of resounding defeats for the relatively inexperienced team.

They beat Orkney 4-1 but team manager Rick Dorush said the event was more of a learning experience and a chance for the sport to get some exposure.

“We are doing OK but it is tough competition, we have got a couple of players who haven't seen this type of competition before,” he said.

Player Harold Minors said the Games was a good experience as Bermuda's 30 to 40 badminton players didn't get exposure to international standard, adding that the event would hopefully get some youngsters interested in the sport.

He said they were hopeful that some of the eight-strong team would progress in the singles and doubles events later in the week.

The men's volleyball team suffered their first defeat, losing 3-0 to a strong Saaremaa side and player Ihab Khalil conceded the side could have been better prepared for the game.

“It was a tough match. We are disappointed but they played a good game and we can't take that away from them.”

He said they still hoped to finish in the top two and compete for a medal.

In the mountain bike criterium, Bermuda's three-man team of Andrew Davis, Garth Thomson and Neil de Ste Croix were lapped out of the race by semi-pro rider Elliott Baxter of the Isle of Man.

Thomson said it was disappointing not to finish the race but believed it had been a worthwhile experience. “It was good fun, really muddy and Andrew crashed out, but he got back on.”

The table tennis players, who number just two men, decided to pull out of the team event and concentrate on the singles and doubles rounds.

Today Bermuda compete in archery, basketball, swimming and volleyball.