Galea, Camilleri book place in Andorra team

Long distance runner Carol Galea has again booked her place in the Malta squad for the Games of the Small States of Europe after a scintillating time of 36 minutes 31.34 seconds in the 10,000m race during last weekend's Aggregate Meet at Marsa.

The Pembroke Athleta star runner finished well inside the qualifying time by nearly two minutes.

Another Pembroke Athleta girl who also made the grade was the current record holder in the long jump, Rebecca Camilleri.

She cleared 5.82 metres and went past the MQS by four centimetres.

Encouragingly, these were not the only results of note, even if the strong winds clearly disturbed some performances.

Diane Borg, for Starmax, continued to shine in the sprints, recording a good 58.67 seconds to win the 400 metres besides once again posting the fastest time in the 100m sprint.

Lisa Marie Bezzina continued her preparation with another positive result in the 1,500 metres while Antonella Chouhal is clearly reaping the effects of the attentions of Hungarian throws coach Gergely Kulscar. She hurled the discus 38.63 metres, tantalisingly close to the qualifying distance set for the GSSE.

In the events for men, Darren Gilford again breezed in virtually unchallenged in the 100m, as did Nikolai Portelli for AS Libertas in the 400m. He recorded 50 seconds exactly, merely 0.64 seconds away from the MQS.

Earlier in the afternoon, Mark Herrera (Pembroke), in the 800m, recorded a seasonal best with a time of 1:54.93, making inroads towards another Malta berth.

Relays aspirations

Other events in which Malta aspires to win shiny metal in Andorra are the relays.

The Malta selection in the women's event is clearly on the right track.

Coach Leandros Calleja declared he was very happy with how the team is shaping up, with the current foursome recording 48.42 at the one-lap event. The result was a mere fraction of a second outside the national record of 48.03 set four years ago.

Unfortunately, the same smooth baton changing was not so evident in the men's 4 x 100. But with so many good sprinters available, coupled with the contribution that can be made by Rashid Chouhal, at present concentrating more on the long jump, the team can be expected to improve significantly.

The MAAA's aggregate events this year are also an opportunity for veteran athletes.

Depending on good showings in their own events, they can aspire for selection to the World Masters Track and Field meeting and to the Non-Stadia 10km race organised by the European Veteran Athletics Association, which edition, in 2001, was held in Malta.

So far the leading contenders are Alfred Debono and Carol Galea.

In the 5,000m, the Zurrieq Wolves runner improved his age-graded performance to 83.85% while Galea, in the same event where she booked a place to Andorra, recorded an age-grade percentage of 86.88%.

She leads Cecilia Fenech (Zurrieq Wolves) by nearly six percentage points.