Further inroads for Scerri and young Galea

Budding Sliema ASC swimmer Daniel Galea and Kyle Scerri, of Neptunes WPSC, yesterday provided more evidence of their talents when they set Age-Group records on the first day of the National Championships at Tal-Qroqq.

Swimming in the 50 metres breaststroke, Galea bettered his own Age-Group 'A' record, set in May, by 0.56 seconds when clocking 41.79.

Scerri managed to erase the name of Neil Cassar from the record books when he stopped the watches on 26.51 seconds in the 50 metres freestyle, an improvement of three hundredths of a second on the time set by Cassar in 1997.

The Neptunes swimmer then went on to break the 200 metres freestyle Age-Group 'D' record, held by Kenneth D'Ugo since 1999, when he clocked 2:05.26 on the first leg of the 4 x 200 metres relay when swimming for his club. This time was 0.64 seconds inside the old record.

It was also the fifth Age-Group record for Scerri within a week after having bettered the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly records in the FISEC Games last week.

Over 70 swimmers representing Exiles, Neptunes, Sirens and Sliema are vying for medals in these championships which continue this morning at the National Pool Complex.