Portelli lifts Maltese team's spirits on final day on track

The final day of track and field events at the GSP Sports Complex in Nicosia was dominated by Nicolai Portelli's drive for Team Malta to bolster its medals haul.

The sprinter won two silver medals, in the 200m and 4x100m races, and then ran for the relay team in the 4x400 metres on their way to a third place.

Giselle Camilleri was the other medallist for Malta on the track yesterday when the middle distance runner took third place in the 5,000m final to push Malta's overall tally at the end of the Games to 21 medals - three gold, five silver and 13 bronze.

It was Portelli who stole the limelight though as he managed a podium finish in all three races he figured in.

He opened up with the 200m sprint and produced a storming run to dash home second in 21.63 seconds. Cyprus's Stefanos Hadjinikolaou took gold in 21.35 and his compatriot Andreas Pafitis was third, just behind Portelli on 21.64 seconds. Mario Bonello finished fifth on 21.78 seconds.

Portelli, 27, was then in action in the 4x100m relay when he joined Bonello, Rashid Chouhal and Karl Farrugia. The quartet produced an impressive run with Portelli taking the baton from Farrugia to speed past the finish line in second place in 41.86 seconds.

Favourites Cyprus retained their gold medal in 41.55 seconds while Luxembourg had to settle for third, 42.25.

Portelli's day was not finished yet as a few minutes later he was on the starting blocks for the 4x400m relay along with Bonello, James D'Alfonso and Mario Debono.

The race turned out to be a close-run thing with the Maltese just managing to grab bronze in 3:18.57.

Cyprus were again the winners in 3:16.82 while Luxembourg took silver in 3:16.90.

"This has been an outstanding day for me," Portelli told The Sunday Times.

"I only switched to the 100 and 200m races last year. There were some who didn't back my choice but I think my results today have vindicated my decision.

"I came here with very little pressure but I was still determined to do well for the country and return home with a medal. Now I have three. So, no regrets about shifting to the sprints."

Chouhal was coming from a difficult year which saw him struggling with injury.

"The past 12 months have been a torture," Chouhal said.

"I suffered a heel injury and I had to skip the jump events but I still wanted to give my contribution to the relay teams.

"Today, we did a good job as a team and we're just glad to leave Cyprus with something to show for our efforts."

In the 5,000m final Camilleri was flanked by 10,000m bronze medallist Carol Walsh on the starting line. The latter pulled out of the race with five laps to go after setting the pace, but Camilleri kept pushing strongly and eventually overtook Frida Run Thordardottir, of Iceland, to cross the finish line third in 18:00.43.

Pascale Schmoetten, of Luxembourg, won this race in 17:36.77 and Iceland's Arndis Hafthorsdottir was second in 17:51.37.

"I did not want to finish empty-handed here and this medal is what I really intended to obtain right from the start," Camilleri said.

"I set off focusing solely on what I was doing and adopted a solid pace that I wanted to maintain for the whole distance. The special training I did in France during Easter was indeed useful and came in handy considering the hot conditions we've had in Cyprus.

"This medal also goes to my coach Ivan Rozhnov. He always believed I could do it."

In women's relays, Malta failed to add any medals.

Charlene Attard, Diane Borg, Lara Scerri and Angie Mangion finished fourth in the 4x100m with a time of 48.30 seconds. Cyprus won the race in 45.98.

Scerri was again in action in the 4x400m when she joined Dorianne Micallef, Marija Sciberras and Martina Xuereb. The quartet again missed out on a place on the podium when placing fourth in 4:01.64. Luxembourg were the surprise winners here in 3:49.07.

In the women's 200m final, Scerri placed seventh in 25.73. She was followed by Dorianne Micallef, 26.93. The winner was Eleni Artymata, of Cyprus, in 23.34.

In the 100m hurdles, Marija Sciberras was eighth in 15.78. Evmorfia Baourda, of Cyprus, took gold in 13.25.

Men's long jump

Andy Grech represented Malta in the men's long jump earlier in the week and finished fifth in the track and field competition after managing a 6.92m in his first jump.

Iceland's Kristinn Torfason won the event with a leap of 7.6m. The Times reported last week that Grech's best jump in Cyprus had been 5.92m. The mistake is regretted.