The second and much larger instalment of the Island Games begins this weekend, with medals on the horizon for a majority of the more than 100 Bermudian athletes involved.

Representatives from the 24 countries get together for an opening ceremony in Shetland tonight, from islands as far afield as Aland, Hitra, Saaremaa and Froya.

The Island?s tennis and basketball team claimed three golds and multiple bronze and silvers in the Gibraltar leg of the Games, with the two sports transplanted to the peninsula due to the lack of facilities at the main venue.

But thousands of athletes across more than dozen sports are still in Shetland, with the Bermuda team mostly staying on cruise ships due to hotel shortages, ready for a week of intense Olympic-style competition.

?We are really looking forward to this,? said Nick Kyme, heavily favoured to win squash gold as number one seed in the singles, who has competed in two Commonwealth Games.

?Nothing has started yet but you can sense there is a great atmosphere. All the Bermuda athletes are sort of clubbing together working out who has a good chance of medals and when different people start so they can arrange to go and watch each other.

?We are near one of the main venues, so there are going to be about five or six different sports all hanging around each other quite a bit.

?I think it is a great idea for an event and we are all looking forward to getting going and hopefully picking up some medals.?

Kyme, along with his mother Denise and fellow professional James Stout, will lead the team in opening day competition on Sunday, with matches against Orkney and Jersey.

?We have avoided Guernsey in the round robin stage which is good for us because they are one of the strongest teams,? said Ross Triffit, director of squash in Bermuda and head coach for the team.

?There should be some tight games. Jersey have some pretty strong female players so there are going to be some crucial matches. We hope to be able to advance through this group and hopefully we can do well enough to avoid Guernsey in the next round.?

The squash team, which also includes Liz Martin, Mel Caines, Laura Robinson and Michael Shrubb, play at noon and 6.40 p.m. local time tomorrow.

The badminton team are also in action twice tomorrow, with Dianne Blais, Rick Dorush, Lee Harrison, Mark Haugen, Claire Kent, Paul Lee, Julie Matthews, Amanda Smith and Ian Wilkie taking on the might of Greenland and the Isle of Man.

And the first medals of the competition could come in the cycling, with podium places up for grabs on straight finals on the first day of competition.

Ashley Robinson, Lynn Patchett and Deanne McMullen go in the women?s individual time trial as well as competing in the team time trial against Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man and Rhodes.

The men?s team of Tyler Butterfield ? an Olympian last year and now a semi-professional cyclist in France ? Kris Hedges and Geri Mewett also compete in the individual and team time trials with Butterfield, in particular, expected to make the first inroads of Bermuda?s assault on the top of the medal table.

The women?s football team, playing abroad for the first time, take on Shetland Isles tomorrow while the volleyball players will also spike into action with the men taking on Cayman and the women going head to head with Aland.

The eight golfers, meanwhile, get a practice round at the Dale Golf Club ahead of their four-day competition which begins on Tuesday.