Despite the strong southerly winds, a number of encouraging performances were produced during last Saturday's MAAA Aggregate Meeting, held at the Marsa Athletics Track.
Two experienced athletes, Carol Walsh and Rachid Chouhal, achieved the minimum qualifying standard (MQS) established for this year's Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE), to be staged in Monaco in June.
Furthermore, Antonella Chouhal established a new national record in the women's discus while young Francesca Xuereb set a new junior national mark in the 400 metres.
In the women's 10,000m, Walsh maintained a steady pace throughout the race to finish in 36:48.12.
Her time was well inside the MQS for participation in the GSSE.
In the men's long jump, Rachid Chouhal also secured a berth in Malta's GSSE athletics team with a leap of 7.33m.
The Xuereb twins ran an excellent race in the women's 400m.
Francesca clocked 56.07 to set a new junior national record, while Martina was second, a mere 0.20 seconds behind.
The times clocked by the Xuerebs, coupled with those recorded by Charlene Attard and Diane Borg earlier this year, indicate that Malta's 4x400 team have also virtually qualified for this year's GSSE.
During the meeting, there was also an attempt by a local selection to attain the 4x100m MQS.
The four runners (Francesca Xuereb, Martina Xuereb, Diane Borg and Therese Mallia) managed a time of 47.99 and were only marginally outside the MQS.
Jennifer Pace's long-standing record in the women's discus was finally shattered by Antonella Chouhal with a throw of 40.75m. It is now hoped that Chouhal maintains her improvement to gain a berth in the Malta team for Monaco.
Another athlete to catch the eye was javelin thrower Jean Paul Callus who registered a seasonal best of 57.13m.
Perhaps, the most interesting competition of the day was the men's 800m race which saw an exciting duel between Mark Herrera and Mario Debono.
Herrera did all the early running but before the bell, Debono burst through and kept plugging away down the back straight. Herrera, however, clawed his way back and managed to overtake Debono in the last few metres.
The finishing times of both athletes suggest that they have the potential to lift local middle distance running to new heights.
Herrera's winning time was 1:55.19 while Debono ran the distance in 1:56.78.
Another good performance came from Nicolai Portelli who managed 50.60 in the 400m.
Promising athletes
Showings in the 100m and 200m were severely hindered by a strong head-wind. Nonetheless, both Borg, who ran the 100m in 12.44, and Mario Bonello, who clocked 22.62 in the 200m, recorded fairly res-pectable times. Neal Borg won the men's 100m in 11.53.
The meeting also saw the participation of a large number of youngsters, some of whom achieved promising results.
In the men's intermediate long jump, Andy Grech summoned a good leap of 6.30m while in the youths category there were interesting results by Maverick Cassar, winner of the 100m and 400m, and Jana Pace Cocks. She prevailed in the 200m and 800m.
The next Track and Field Meeting will be held on Saturday. The first event starts at 1.30 p.m.