Two age-group records fall

The first time trial of the new swimming season held last Sunday at Tal-Qroqq Swimming Complex, produced two Age-Group records. These were both registered in Group 'B', reserved for swimmers in the 12 and 13 years age-bracket.

In the events for girls, Neptunes swimmer Talisa Pace, 12, set a new mark of 1:05.45 in the 100 metres freestyle to beat the 1996 record of Christine Cachia by 0.37 seconds.

Robert Micallef, 13, another youngster from the Balluta Bay club, bettered the 200m butterfly record held by Kenny D'Ugo since 1995. Micallef clocked 2:50.30, an improvement of 2.03 seconds on the previous time.

Neptunes coach Gail Rizzo was pleased with these two performances so early in the season. She must be hoping that this will set the trend for other swimmers to keep erasing age-group records, some of which have been standing for quite some time.

Swimmers from other clubs also took part in the first of a series of monthly trials which will continue over the season's three cycles.