Swimmers pushing each other to new heights - Colbourn

Last week's 14th International Age-Group Swimming Meet at the National Pool provided the swimmers in the Malta squad with a lot of satisfaction since no fewer than four national and six category records were broken, besides 24 personal bests by the boys and girls under the charge of coach Andy Colbourn.

There were also several PB's by club swimmers from Neptunes WPSC, Sliema ASC and IASIS, most of whom have maintained steady progress since their previous time-trials.

Colbourn expressed his satisfaction when commenting at the end of the three-day Meet.

"I am very happy with the results as this is the team's first taper off my training programme. They all performed exceptionally well and above expectations," he said.

"Nicole Cremona and Andrea Agius deserve special mention. Nicole, for her swim in the 200 Free (2:14.92) which was a PB by almost four seconds and Andrea for his national record (1:10.62) in the 100 Breast, which was the best swim of the Meet."

Indeed, the two swimmers were the revelation of the three-day programme of races.

"The girl just touched out the ever-improving Talisa Pace in the most exciting swim of the Meet, the 200 Free," Colbourn remarked.

"As for the boys, we are very lucky at the moment to have three talented Breast swimmers in Andrea Agius, Paul Herrera and Neil Agius.

"The battle for supremacy in the 100 Breast has seen their PB's drop by more than four seconds in the last six months.

"Currently, in the ASA squad we have a fantastic group of hard-working swimmers who are pushing each other to new heights. This is especially so in the boys' section where I am finding it increasingly hard to choose the fastest swimmers, since they are all so close to one another over a wide variety of strokes.

"Of them all, Neil Agius is emerging as a jack-of-all-trades as he continues to set big PB's over all strokes and distances, although the ones he is most known for, the 400 and 1,500 metres, still just elude.

"But, with his new-found talent over all the strokes, he may well be surprising everyone in the medley events in the not too distant future," the national coach said.

Valuable support

Referring to the assistance he is getting as a coach, Colbourn singled out coach Monique Mangion for seeing to the everyday training of the other national team members while he was in Australia with the Maltese swimmers for the World Championships.

"I am extremely happy that Monique was prepared to give up her valuable time for our swimmers," he said.

Certainly everybody is pulling his weight to make things move on, including Colbourn's team at Triton, physiologist Maria Mifsud Bonnici and masseur Clifford Sultana, both of whom help to prepare the boys and girls to optimum nutritional and physical levels.

The swimmers' parents are also playing an important role with their constant co-operation, not the least when ferrying swimmers to the training venues. The same goes for Meet officials.

A special mention should go to the management of the MFA Pool at the Millennium Stand, Ta' Qali where swimmers did their work-outs between November and January when the National Pool was unavailable.

Colbourn referred to the swimming fraternity under the ASA.

"We now have a very happy family and a highly successful atmosphere permeating throughout the ranks of Maltese swimmers and coaches to whom I am grateful for their hard work and dedication.

"They are helping the standard of swimming on the island to reach new heights never seen before," he concluded.