Malta swimming coach Andy Colbourn was an elated man yesterday when his women’s team in the 4x200 freestyle event reached their objective and finished among the medal winners at the pool in Muhleholz.
Talisa Pace, Melinda Sue Micallef, Davina Mangion and Nikki Muscat set a new national record to place third, a final position that was rectified to second a few minutes later when Luxembourg were disqualified.
Colbourn had opted to field his swimmers in the morning heats only yesterday to preserve their energy for the afternoon relays and his decision paid good dividends.
Muscat opened a sizeable lead over fourth-placed Monaco after the opening leg and that gap continued to widen as Pace, Micallef and Mangion took to the water with the latter touching home in 8.58.15... a new national best.
The girls’ time was quicker than the previous mark of 8:59.75.
Iceland took gold in 8:36.43 while Monaco were lifted to bronze in 9:21.90 following Luxembourg’s forfeit.
In the men’s relay, Andrea Agius, Edward Caruana Dingli, Mark Sammut and Neil Agius failed to repeat the heroics of their female counterparts as they missed out on a place on the podium after placing fourth in 8:00.55.
That swim, however, was equally significant as the boys shattered the previous national record over the distance by a staggering 11 seconds (previous record: 8:11.60).
In another race, Andrew Chetcuti was close to winning his second consecutive medal at the Games when he placed fourth in the 100 metres fly.
The Dubai-based swimmer had qualified to the final as the second fastest when he clocked 57.38.
Chetcuti lowered his time to 57.23 but his effort was not enough as he had to settle for fourth place behind Alexandre Bakhtiarov (Cyprus, 54.70), Agust Juliussson (Iceland, 56.77) and Orri Gudmunsson (Iceland, 56.98).
At the end of competitions, Colbourn was satisfied to have completed another day with some remarkable results.
“Our projection for the girls was that we could win bronze in this relay and in fact they placed third,” he said.
“Bronze turned into silver following Luxembourg’s disqualification. Swimmers have to be careful in relays and our team played fair and square and got their deserved reward.
“The boys had an outside chance in their relay and for half the race we were within touching distance but it was not to be.
“However, the record was outstanding and they should be satisfied with their effort.”
Turning his sights on Chetcuti, the coach added: “Andrew had a tough task to finish in the top three and was unlucky to miss out. But I’m sure we shall see more of him this week.”