Andrew Chetcuti

Andrew Chetcuti and Michael Umnov delivered the goods at the pool yesterday after winning a silver and a bronze medal respectively on the opening day of the swimming programme.

Chetcuti underlined his status as the country’s leading national team swimmer when he placed second in the 100 metres freestyle after touching home in 51.69 seconds.

Julien Henx, of Luxembourg, took gold in 50.39 and his team-mate Jean-Francois was third in 51.71.

For Chetcuti it was an improvement on his performance of two years ago when he had to settle for third place in Luxembourg.

“It’s a great start for me,” Chetcuti told Times of Malta.

“Winning a silver medal is a great result considering I only started proper preparation eight weeks ago. I still hoped to clock personal best here but I just missed out. Hopefully, I will swim faster in my next events.”

Matthew Galea was also on the starting blocks of the 100m free.

He produced a personal best time of 53.15 seconds but could only manage eighth place.

Umnov was a surprise bronze medallist in the 200 ’fly when swimming home in a new personal best of 2:05.77.

The race was won by Luxembourg’s Laurent Carnol in 2:02.93 while Christoph Meier, of Liechtenstein, was second in 2:03.15.

Malta’s Julian Harding was seventh in 2:13.54.

Umnov achieved another personal best in the 200m IM when clocking 2:09.43 to finish seventh.