Gold medals for Maltese in Cannftatt meet

The five Maltese swimmers competing in an international age-group meet in Cannftatt, near Stuttgart, on Saturday and Sunday, arrived back home with a creditable eight gold, six silver and three bronze medals.

The event attracted about 500 upcoming swimmers from central European countries, mostly from host country Germany.

Coach Attila Selmeci said that this trip was meant to be part of a hard routine work-out with no tapering in mind. Nevertheless, he was satisfied with the results obtained, most of which were very close to the swimmers' personal bests.

Roberta Callus won three golds, all in the freestyle events (100, 200 and 400), besides a silver medal. Neil Agius won the 200 butterfly and the 400 free, as well as two silver medals.

Davina Mangion collected a gold in the 200 'fly, plus a silver, while Lara Callus and Rachelle Axiaq struck gold in the 50 back and 200 'fly respectively, apart from a silver medal each.

As part of their second cycle, towards the end of this month, this group will be joined by Angela Galea on their way to a training camp in Sicily where they will be hosted by Poseidon Catania.

Early in the new year, Galea should compete in a high-level meet in Luxembourg.

The next overseas stage for the swimmers is scheduled for March, and the venue will again be Germany, this time Sindenfigen. That will be followed by the Easter International Age-Group Meet at the National Pool.

Routine training at tal-Qroqq will hopefully proceed uninterruptedly in between these important overseas parenthesis, both for the national team swimmers as well as those youngsters attached with the clubs.

Meanwhile, the third cycle in the programme should see the swimmers building to a peak for the Games of the Small States of Europe in Malta, early in June.