Enthusiasm and excitement characterised the Joe Bajada Memorial and Relay Championships, held at the Marsa athletics track last weekend.

Indeed, with the European Team Championships less than seven weeks away, one expected a higher turnout by the older, more experienced athletes. That said, Malta's qualified coaches probably know better than anyone else and will bring their charges to peak at the right moment.

Of the eight relays contested, Pembroke Athleta bagged seven, including one in which the only team that presented itself hailed from this club. However, the other relays, especially the 4x100m for youth boys and the 4x400m for youth girls provided the better spectacle.

Chronologically, in the first of the team clashes, that for the cadet category, Pembroke swept the board with their three female teams all finishing on the podium.

The club then won the next relay for youth boys by a 14th of a second, although only one-hundredth of a second separated Savio, who finished second, from the Starmax boys.

The corresponding relay for the youth girls demonstrated the good preparation of the Pembroke coaches as witnessed again in the 4x400m won by the Athleta boys (youth).

Nevertheless, Starmax had to spoil Pembroke's party. This came about in the longer relay for youth girls when the comfortable lead built after the first two splits, little by little gave way until Starmax gamely won the event.

During the rest of the afternoon, other performances that caught the eye were the victories recorded by Andy Grech (Pembroke) in the 100m and the long jump, that by Matthew Croker (Savio) in the 200m and the assault on the junior high jump record by Jeremy Borg (Allcomers Aloysians), whose best jump cleared 1.80 metres.

Alessandra Pace, of Żurrieq Wolves, continued her winning spree in the long jump and Steve Camilleri (Pembroke) tasted victory in the 400 metres.