The newly-revived Winter Track and Field Championships were held at Marsa last weekend.
The meeting is aimed to provide athletes with an opportunity to gauge their levels ahead of the outdoor season and, judging by the results and new records established, it does seem that the championships are here to stay.
Among the main highlights of the afternoon was Rebecca Sarè’s performance as the Pembroke Athleta girl bettered her own national triple jump record by 11cm, the new mark now set at 12.37m.
Sarè then stayed on to compete in the long jump, managing to achieve the MQS to compete at the European Small Nations Cham-pionships next June.
“With Rebecca Camilleri retired and no triple jump event included in June’s Games, I decided to have a shot at long jump,” Sarè said.
“However, there are a couple of aspects in my jump that I, together with coach Jivko, need to work on in the coming months.”
In the only sprint event, the 60m, Luke Bezzina again ran a personal best, 6.92secs, to win the race, having also bettered his mark recently in London.
Janet Richard won the women’s 60m dash, with an excellent 7.67secs, ahead of Rachel Fitz.
Richard went on to win the 800m, underlining her supremacy in both sprint and middle distance runs.
Other interesting races were the men’s 800m, with Matthew Croker beating his sporting rival Simon Spiteri by a mere two hundredths of a second, the 400m, also won by Croker, and the 3,000m, in which improving Żurrieq Wolves runner Jean Paul Debono finished first ahead of Dario Mangion.
The in-form Lisa Bezzina took the women’s 3,000m with Josann Attard Pulis second followed by Mona Lisa Camilleri.
Meanwhile, in throwing events, three other new records were set to add to the five the week before.
Youth hammer thrower Martina Mamo (32.88m) and Catriona Cuschieri (34.04m), in intermediates, both improved their own national records.
Cuschieri, incidentally, went on to beat veteran and former national record holder Antonella Chouhal in the discus… no mean feat for the 17-year-old St Patrick’s AC athlete.
Chouhal had to settle for the women’s shot putt title on the day.
The third new mark set was in the men’s discus as Luke Farrugia cleared 48.51m in his final attempt to overcome Bradley Mifsud’s stiff challenge.
Farrugia will be representing the country at the European Throwing Cup, in Romania, next month. He will be competing in the Under-23 category.
Other winners at the meeting were Joanne Vella, in the javelin, and Karol Spiteri in the youths’ shot putt. Both Vella and Spiteri fell just short of further improving the national records they had set earlier this month.
Lawrence Ransley won the shot putt and Rashid Chouhal prevailed in the hammer throw.