With performances coming on nicely to peak in time for the Games of the Small States of Europe, the general feeling at the Marsa stadium last Saturday was upbeat.

Having witnessed Andy Grech dip below 11 seconds at the beginning of the month and Maltese-Australian Kevin Moore giving confirmation that he will only don our colours, sprinters Luke Bezzina and Steve Camilleri both clocked 10.94 seconds to come within one-hundredth of a second from the time recorded by Grech.

Good news then for the possible relay teams.

More was to follow.

Despite her young age, Rebecca Sarè has been on the scene for quite some time but in the past, despite her dogged determination, she remained in the shadow of the elite.

Last weekend, Sarè finally saw her dream come true.

Guided by her coach Jivko Jec-hev to concentrate on the triple jump, the softly-spoken Sarè, explosive in take-off, captured the Minimum Qualifying Standard (MQS) in the event, hopping, stepping and jumping a distance of 12.08m to clear the target by 4cm.

But that was still not the end of the afternoon story.

Coming back from injury and putting in her first appearance this season, Diane Borg clocked 12.24 and 25.12 in the sprints with the GSSE MQS clearly in her sights.

Youngsters Robyn Zammit and Nicole Borg were not that far behind either, again auguring well for another relay team performance on the GSSE stage.

Besides, Nicole Gatt, followed by Lara Scerri and Francesca Borg, also did pretty well in the 400m, all three beating one minute in the one-lap sprint.

Further good news for the selectors was the season-best result in the same event for men, Matthew Croker making it in 50.17 with Neil Brimmer just over half-a-second on his heels.

The final salvo of the meeting was left yet again to Mario Grech in the 5,000m. He recorded another season best with his time of 15:39.51 minutes.