ANTHONY FAVA

Just when it seemed that this year’s national championships in Athletics, for Youths and Cadets, was to remain record-less, Nicole Gatt saved the day by slicing off another seven hundredths of a second from her previous best in the 300m sprint set in March.

In truth, this annual event was a series of near misses, with Nicole herself denied the honour in the 1,200m run, in which she had to settle for a Championship record instead. Thomas Farrugia, from the same club Starmax, again missed out by a hair’s breadth at the 200m – by two hundredths of a second - and was once again near in the 100 metres.

In the meantime, Eric Borg Saywell (Allcomers Aloysians) actually had a better time in the 100m for cadets, but as had happened in previous outings, the following wind was over the legal limit. The weather was more of a protagonist on the second day when morning rains scared away some athletes with the result that participation this year was down by some 25 per cent overall.

The conditions did not snuff out the resolve of the youngsters who turned up however. In fact, a personal best obtained by a large number of athletes was reward enough for their efforts.

Thalia Massa (Pembroke Athleta) was one, when she registered a personal best time in winning the 100m, just as she did the previous day in the 200metres.

Another was Daniel Gauci of Savio, where a reputation earned over recent years of producing throwers saw the lad improving in both the shot putt as well as in the discus, emerging a winner in both events. Other female future stars to shine – and win – in more than one event were Rebecca Fitz and Carla Micallef both of Allcomers Aloysians, Rhea Gavin from the Starmax club, Emily Jane Garrett (St Patrick’s) and Clarissa Cremona of Pembroke Athleta, besides Nicole Gatt, mentioned already.

Among the boys, Benji Fenech Salerno of Pembroke, Thomas Farrugia and Eric Borg Saywell, triumphed in more than one event, but of course, credit is surely due to the many other athletes who carried away top honours in their preferred speciality.

Athletics Malta also acquiesced to put up a number of extra events for the senior athletes to get ‘match practice’ and in the Hammer Throw, Antonella Chouhall of AS Libertas again bettered the record mark when on two occasions she upped the mark to settle for a distance of 31.55 metres.