Maltese sprinters took centre stage at the Rheinwiese Stadium in Schaan on the final day of the 2011 LieGames as they won three gold medals on an outstanding after-noon for Team Malta that meant our best-ever performance in a GSSE outside our shores.
Diane Borg established herself as the country’s all-time best sprinter when she completed a double after winning the 200m race before teaming up with Martina Xuereb, Charlene Attard and Rebecca Camilleri for a gold medal in the 4x100 relay.
The other gold medal at the track yesterday came from the women’s 4x400m quartet as Attard, Francesca Xuereb, Celine Pace and Nicole Gatt outpaced all opposition to cross the finish line ahead of the rest.
With squash yielding two other gold medals in singles in Vaduz (see opposite page), the country’s tally of first places here soared to eight.
Such bountiful figures, in terms of quality medals won, were never repeated before in our Games history, apart from the 2003 edition which was held in Malta.
Before, our best ever showing outside the country was in San Marino 2001. On that occasion, Maltese athletes returned home with seven gold medals.
Back to the track, the men’s sprinters were outshone by their female counterparts but still achieved excellent results.
Owen Camilleri was third in the 200 metres. He then joined Ras-chid Chouhal, Andy Grech and Karl Farrugia to clinch silver in the 4x100 relay.
Farrugia also formed part of the 4x400 team, that included Kevin Moore, James D’Alfonso and Neil Brimmer, as they ran a superb race to finish second.
Other medallists in Schaan yesterday were Alessandra Pace, bronze in triple jump, and Lisa Marie Bezzina. The latter grabbed her second silver of the Games, this time in the 5,000 race.
However, it was the performances of Diane Borg, 20, that attracted much of the attention as the Starmax sprinter earned her first gold medals in the Games with some impressive runs.
Facing her sporting nemesis, Anna Papaioannou who had beaten her in the 100 metres final, Borg ensured that there was no repeat of that heartache this time as she ran strongly to just edge the Cypriot in 24.27... 0.06 faster than the national record she had established last month.
This time, Papaioannou had to settle for silver while Hrafnhild Hermodsdottir, of Iceland, took bronze.
“This was long coming,” an elated Borg said.
“I wasn’t happy to have finished behind Papaioannou in the 100m race so I was determined to put the record straight today. I started very strongly and, perhaps, paid a little bit for that but I managed to hold on till the end.
“That was my first gold medal in an individual race and my seventh personal best, which include the national records, in the last month. I’ll remember these Games forever, it’s a fairytale thing and I still can’t believe what I managed to achieve.”
In the girls’ 4x100 relay, Malta had to contend with the strong chal-lenge of Cyprus and Iceland. However, in the end there were no qualms on the winners as Camilleri, Borg, Martina Xuereb and Attard took the lead from the early stages and powered their way across the finish line with a comfortable margin.
The Maltese foursome won in a new national record of 46.30 seconds while Cyprus took silver in 47.08. Iceland grabbed bronze in 47.09.
“We are so ecstatic to have won this race,” Martina Xuereb said.
“This result was the fruit of long weeks of hard training. Cyprus beat us in Monaco but this time it was our turn to taste glory.”
In the longer relay, Francesca Xuereb, Gatt, Attard and Pace recovered from a slow start to surge ahead and never look back to complete the country’s relay double.
The winning time was three minutes, 49.95 seconds while Luxembourg placed second in 3:51.50. Cyprus took bronze in 4:07.92.
The men’s 4x100 relay team came agonisingly close to emulate the women’s feat but Panagiotis Ioannou earned Cyprus gold with a final push. Their time was 41.53 as Malta were second in 41.72 and San Marino third in 42.21.
In the 4x400 race, the Maltese team were made to chase the superior Cypriots and in the end they had to settle for second place in 3.15.73.
Camilleri won his first individual medal of the Games when he took third place in the 200 metres final in 21.90 seconds, a new personal best. Ioannou won it for Cyprus in 21.46 and his team-mate, Anthos Christofides, was second in 21.75.
In the women’s 5,000m race Bezzina (17:48.90) finished second behind Montenegro’s Sladana Peurnovic (17.39.70) while Pascale Schmoetten, of Luxembourg, came in third in 17:54.12. Giselle Camilleri was fourth in 18:04.53.
“It was a tough race and at one point I was going to give up,” sea-soned campaigner Bezzina said.
“However, the Luxembourg girl was the one to tire first and from then on I grew in confidence. I’m so glad to win my second silver medal here.”
In the triple jump final, Pace won her first medal in a GSSE when she leapt to third place with 11.84 metres. Nina Serbezova, of Cyprus, won in 13.63 while Eleftheira Christofi was second in 13.00.
Mark Herrera was the other athlete in action yesterday. He placed seventh in the 1,500 metres final in 4:08.58.