Pembroke Athleta paid homage to its one-time secretary Joe Gerada at the eighth Memorial Track and Field Meeting, held recently at Marsa, with a handsome turnout that produced noteworthy results, including milestones in three categories.

Pride of place went to a new record in the women’s seniors javelin where Joanne Vella, of Pembroke, bettered her previous best distance by close to 1.5m for the new mark to beat – 41.83 metres.

Vella’s club-mate Bradley Mifsud, also in javelin, came very close to a new junior and senior mark by his 63.90 heave, although to compensate he smashed his own national junior shot putt record by 32cm to a new distance of 14.60 metres.

The other record up for ratification went to Catriona Cuschieri in the intermediate shot putt (the IAAF youth category) with her effort of 9.45 metres.

Incidentally, all three athletes are under the guidance of national and Pembroke throws coach Genz Dapi.

Another athlete who left a good impression was Luke Bezzina in the 60m sprint.

He stopped the clock on 7.08, ahead of the 7.12secs timing of Andy Grech, the Pembroke Athleta sprinter again on the rise after a long convalescence.

The popular 60m sprint also produced other notable results, namely, that of Janet Richard, of St Patrick’s, who clocked 7.88, Sarah Bartolo’s 8.39, just 0.04 seconds away from the national record in the cadet category; and that of San Anton’s Sean Spiteri.

Spiteri managed 7.77 seconds, four hundredths of a second away from the record he established at the Brno European Kids Athletics Games, where he even had a better timing, albeit with a strong following wind.

With the 2016 Championships of the Small States of Europe in June looming closer, these and other results hold promise of a grand showing by our national team.