The Track and Field season 2007, in this GSSE year, has hardly taken off and last year’s top two female sprinters, Charlene Attard and Diane Borg, have each notched two national records apiece.

Charlene’s have come about on two consecutive week-ends, when at the first pre-season meeting on Malta’s National Day, she brought down the 60m record (outdoors) to 7.79seconds.

She followed this up this Saturday by knocking off another two-hundredths of a second, again outdoors. Meanwhile Diane, who last week was beaten to the tape by her rival in the 200m, had her sweet revenge by taking the indoors national record from Charlene last Saturday, when in an indoor meet in London, she twice dipped below the record 7.76 seconds timing established by Attard a year ago in Moscow.

In the semi-final at Brunel University, Diane first clocked 7.73 to follow it up in the final with a 7.71 seconds timing. The final opportunity to win a place in the European Indoors in Birmingham in the first week of March now seems to hinge on the results at the last pre-season meeting next Saturday which should also witness the challenge of Darren Francis Gilford for the male spot.

Apart from the national record, the first meeting was also witness to impressive results by Rachid Chouhal, winner of both the 60m and the Long Jump events.

Mario Mifsud was another double winner, with throws of 40.60metres in the discus and 12.56 metres in the shot putt. In the 400m, Francesca Xuereb stopped the clock on 56.40 seconds while Vittorio Aquilina in the High Jump cleared 1.75m.

At the second meeting this weekend the 60m for men turned out to be such a close affair that Neil Borg and Jeandre Mallia each received a 7.21 second timing, with Borg just making it first home.

Andrew Cassar Torregiani, of San Andrea School, was equally impressive in his 100m, clocking 12.18 seconds a little while after clearing 1.60m in the high jump. Other youths to leave their mark were boys Ezekiel Micallef (400m), Simon Spiteri (1500m) and girls Jana Pace Cocks (200 and 800m) and Maria Sciberras who was grace personified in the 75 m hurdles.