Diane Borg and Lisa Marie Bezzina capped a fine day for Maltese track and field athletics on Day One of competition at the Rheinwiese track in Schaan yesterday as both won a silver medal.
Borg took centre stage in the 100 metres event with an outstanding race that all but sealed her status as our leading sprinter at the moment. At one point, the 20-year-old was seriously challenging for gold as she led with just under 30 metres to go only to be pipped to the post by Cyprus sprinter Anna Ramona Papaioannou who clocked 11.86 seconds.
Borg was second in a new national record of 11.93 seconds... 0.04 seconds faster than the previous best set by Charlene Attard, who, incidentally, had clocked that time when winning silver in the Monaco GSSE in 2007.
Luxembourg sprinter Tiffany Tshilumba was third in 12.01.
However, the 100m result is under investigation after the Maltese officials filed a protest, arguing that Papaioannou had invaded Borg’s lane during the race. A decision is expected today and for this reason the presentation ceremony had to be postponed.
Borg was still satisfied with her achievements.
“It’s a great result that I placed second as I always wanted a medal in an individual event in the GSSE,” Borg told The Times.
“The Cypriot girl clearly touched the line during the race and she also hit my arm which hampered my coordination. I hope justice will be done.”
Earlier, Attard had failed to make it to the final when she clocked 12.34 in the heats.
In the men’s 100m, Rachid Chouhal failed to make the cut but Karl Farrugia was through after clocking 11.04 seconds.
The Aloysians sprinter just missed out on a medal in the final when finishing fourth in 10.94 (a new personal best) behind Ioannou Panagiotis (Cyprus, 10.60), Yoann Bebon (Luxembourg, 10.82) and Anthos Christofides (Cyprus, 10.84).
Bezzina achieved her best result in the Games when placing second behing Montenegro’s Sladana Perunovic who dominated the 10,000m race to win in 36.00.48. Bezzina was second in a new personal best of 36:51.86 while the bronze medal went to Luxembourg’s Pascala Schmoetten (36.55.16).
“I gave my 100 per cent today and although I was put under pressure by the Luxembourg runner I remained strong and in the end managed to bring home my first silver medal in a GSSE,” Bezzina said.
“I wouldn’t have done it without the useful advice of my coach John Walsh, my boss Ian Restall and my family who gave me a lot of support in the past few months.”
Giselle Camilleri was the other Maltese runner in the long-distance race and she placed fourth in 37.22.08.
In the other events held yesterday, Celine Pace finished eighth in the 800 metres final in a time of 2:23.40. The gold medal here went to Meropi Romagioutou, of Cyprus, in 2:10.52.
Nicole Gatt (58.63) and Kevin Moore (48.41) both won their 400 metres heats to book their places in the final.
They were joined by Francesca Xuereb (58.55) and James D’Alfonso (49.29).
MOC optimistic
MOC president Lino Farrugia Sacco sounded confident that Team Malta would meet their goals in this year’s GSSE.
“Today it was another good day for us. The three silver medals won, in athletics and swimming, were significant achievements and we are also pleased with our girls’ table tennis team,” he said.
“In tennis and squash there is a great potential of winning some important medals as well.
“Hopefully, there will be more encouraging results in the next 24 hours to put ourselves close to winning our first gold in these Games.”