Steve Camilleri and Rebecca Camilleri took part in an athletics meeting in Modena, last week.

The two sprinters, coached by Jivko Jetchev, competed in Italy as part of their preparations for next month’s Games of the Small States of Europe in Luxembourg.

Steve Camilleri ran in the 100 metres heats and had a best time of 11.16 seconds to finish 13th overall from 150 sprinters.

Up next for him was the 400m race.

Despite running on the unfavourable outside lane, Camilleri won his heat in 49.20 seconds.

That was 1.5secs faster than his previous personal best and he also became the first Maltese runner to clock a sub-50sec time for the one-lap distance this year.

Rebecca Camilleri, who has already booked her place in the Malta team for the GSSE, raced in the 100m race.

Camilleri, more comfortable in the long jump, went on to win her heat in 12.19 seconds to finish fifth overall from 139 entries.

Her timing was the second fastest clocked by a Maltese woman sprinter this year and just 0.05 seconds outside the MQS set by the Maltese Olympic Committee for the small nations games.