Young Grech shines in triple jump

Surprisingly, the last aggregate meeting before the National Championships, beset with windy gusts on an overcast afternoon, produced some scintillating performances, crowned by a new junior triple jump record.

In addition to his consistent progress in the long jump, Pembroke Athleta's Andy Grech recently ventured into the more technical triple jump and immediately gave notice that in this event he also means business.

Last weekend, on his first attempt, he cleared 14.01 metres to better the previous mark of his predecessor at the club, Paul Vella, by 37cm.

Also on Saturday, albeit aided by a slightly over-the-limit following wind, Nikolai Portelli, of AS Libertas, continued with his successful season when he recorded a straight 11 seconds in the 100m, a seasonal best for him.

Another athlete enjoying a high is St Patrick's AC runner Haithem Ksheim, seemingly effortlessly winning the 1,500m in 4 minutes 11 seconds following which he led the field to win the 5,000m in a good 15:29.05.

These doubles were repeated by Mario Mifsud, in the throws, and upcoming youngsters Thomas Farrugia (Starmax) and Christian Luke Chetcuti (Allcomers). Both these promising lads are out gunning for records with the nearest seemingly the latter, who is now less than two seconds away from the 1,500m record for youths.

Another youngster who aspires to go into the books at 100m is Pembroke's Clayton Sheldon. His fine 11.7 seconds is just a whisker away from the national record which currently stands at 11.54 seconds.

Among the females, Francesca and Martina Xuereb, of Starmax, again shone in the one-lap sprint, Francesca edging out her sister in 56.8 seconds.

Angie Mangion (Pembroke) made it a double in the jumps, as did Rachel Bezzina, for Żurrieq Wolves, again in the long jump and in the 100m. Another good performance in the long jump for youths was the 5.33 metres cleared by Tamara Vella.

Camilleri qualifies

But the event that must have derived the most personal satisfaction was the 5,000m race.

Here, Giselle Camilleri continued on her comeback following a nagging injury by clocking marginally over 18 minutes to qualify for a place on the AASSE (Small Nations Combined) team to contest the European Cup Second Division at the end of June.