Attard breaks 100 metres national record

Three national records were set yesterday at the Matthew Micallef St John track and field stadium during the sixth MAAA Aggregate meeting.

Charlene Attard reconfirmed her status as one of the leading sprinters in the women's category after setting a new national record in the 100 metres race in the Open category.

The Pembroke runner sprinted home in 12.09 seconds to better the previous mark of 12.11 set by Diane Borg in Morocco last year.

Tamara Vella, of Pembroke, stole the headlines in the Cadets competition when she set two national bests in the long jump and high jump competitions.

In the high jump event, Vella cleared 1.45 metres to set a new record in the discipline, bettering by two centimetres the previous mark of 1.43 set by Libertas athlete Dorianne Micallef earlier this year.

Vella then went on to set further records in the long jump event when in her first attempt she leapt to 4.73 metres to better by 12 centimetres the previous mark set by Julie Anne Grech, of San Andrea School.

The talented Pembroke athlete was not finished yet. Vella went on to improve this long jump record by a further 21 centimetres when she cleared 4.94 metres.