Malta had two athletes in action at the London Games yesterday with Diane Borg running the 100m race twice in the same day at the Olympic Stadium and swimmer Nicola Muscat engaged in the opening heats of the 50m sprint at the Aquatics Centre.

Borg had negotiated her way into the first round of the track and field blue riband race for women after her seventh place from 33 starters in the morning preliminary round.

However, the level of competition increased significantly in the evening races when the world’s best sprinters entered the fray.

In fact, Borg was paired in the same heat as world champion Carmelita Jeter.

The powerful US sprinter won the race in 10.82 to qualify for the semi-finals along with Olga Bludova (Kazakhstan, 11.31) and Sheniqua Ferguson (Bahamas, 11.35).

In the end, Borg had to be content with her season’s best time of 11.92 seconds, 0.03 seconds outside the national record which she had set in Liech-tenstein last year.

Earlier in the day, Borg had clocked 12.00 seconds in the preliminary round to finish third behind Cameroon’s Delphine Atangana (11.71) and Belize’s Kaina Martinez (11.81).

The first two in each race were guaranteed a place in the first round but Borg had to wait until all four heats were completed to know her fate as the next two fastest girls were also admitted to the first round.

At the pool, Muscat, 18, was fourth in one of the 50m race heats in pro-gramme.

Her time was 27.22 seconds which was 0.35 of a second outside her national record of 26.87 seconds.

Muscat was faster than Jessica Teixeira (Mozambique, 27.39), Talita Baqlah (Jordan, 27.45), Faye Sultan (Kuwait, 27.92) and Jamila Lunkuse (Uganda, 28.44).

The Maltese swimmer, who was eventually classified 43rd from an entry of 73 swimmers, touched the board behind Lithuania prodigy and 100m breaststroke gold medallist Ruta Meilutyte (25.55), Latvia’s Gabriele Nikitina 26.26 and Chinyere Pigot, of Surinam, 26.30.

Muscat’s race wrapped Malta’s participation in the swim events at the Games.

Earlier this week, Andrew Chetcuti swam the 100m heats and established a new national record for the event in 51.67 seconds.

Chouhal’s turn

The remaining member in Team Malta yet to make a showing at the London Games, Rachid Chouhal, will race in the 100m men’s heats at the Olympic Stadium this morning.

Chouhal, 37, will be in Heat Four with the first qualifying race scheduled to start at 11 a.m. (Malta time).

His personal best time for the sprint distance is 10.57 seconds.