Swimming chairman Dr Michael Gialanze, speaking after the swimming competition was over yesterday, told me that he was considering this performance in Monaco as very successful, for obvious reasons.

He said: “We have done better than Andorra. Four medals in such a strong competition and two fourth placings, is not bad. I think it was very successful and the future looks promising for our team. We now look forward to the Games in Cyprus in 2009. But, of course, we will have to work a lot harder, we have to continue improving as all the others are improving fast in various disciplines.”

Gialanze said good times had been registered here and he could notice the very big improvement by nations such as Monaco, Luxembourg and Cyprus. “They have all crept closer to the dominant nation Iceland. And I firmly believe that Cyprus will be much stronger in the next two years. On our part, we have confirmed and continued to show improvement in the girls section, but we are still a long way behind in the men’s field.”

The Swimming chairman said he could not but show disappointment at the fact that Angela had lost the gold medal in the 200m butterfly - an event she had won in Andorra. “She lost it after leading for most of the way. It was only in the final touch that she was overtaken. Considering the circumstances, however, I must say that she almost performed a miracle,” he added.

Gialanze also said he had expected at least another medal from his group of women swimmers.

“To be honest, I expected five, not four medals. I had high hopes we would get a medal either in the 50m or the 200m. Madeleine Scerri finished a close fourth in both events, especially in the 50m, where she also lost the bronze by the final touch,” he said.

Gialanze was full of praise for Madeleine Scerri. “She is an exceptionally promising swimmer. She is very young, only 17 and we expect her to do better in the next Games in Cyprus,” he said. Asked whether they intend sending her to some important competition in the near future to represent Malta, he said: “The next big competition is the Olympic Games in Beijing. That, however, does not depend wholly on us. The decision has to be taken by the Maltese Olympic Committee.”