A new recruit within the folds of Birkirkara St Joseph Sports Club is another athlete with special needs.

Eighteen year old Justin Spiteri has joined the swimming section of the Club and is currently taking part in and so far finished all the races in the Clubs Open Sea Swimming Series 2007.

Furthermore on the 25th August he is going to try the “Gozo-Malta Open Sea Swimming Challenge organised by his Club.

Justin has been a keen sportsperson since very young starting his sporting career with the Savio Athletics team under the direction of Father Clifton competing in track and field events and cross country running.

Later he joined Special Olympics (Malta) in athletics and swimming under the guidance of Ms Anna Calleja and Ms Angelique Attard respectively.

In the Special Olympics Regional Games Seville Spain 2004 he won two gold medals in swimming, while in 2005 he won another gold medal in bocce (singles) at the Special Olympics European Youth Games in Rome, Italy.

Unfortunately last winter he had to stop all training for three months due to a hand injury with the consequence that he missed qualification for the Special Olympics World Championships 2007 being held in China next October.

Quite determined, Justin started immediately to train for endurance long distance swimming. In fact he has already raced in four 2 Km races and another of 4km in the Birkirkara St Joseph Open Sea Swimming Series, the latter in preparation for the forthcoming 5.5 Km Gozo-Malta event. Justin managed to finish all these five races, clocking quite an impressive time.

In all these races he was accompanied by his training partner James Sapienza who again will be accompanying Justin in the Gozo-Malta Open Sea Challenge.

Justin is being sponsored by Brandstatter (Playmobil) Malta, where he is a trainee worker. Sports has helped Justin immensely as it has given him self-confidence to win over the many setbacks which he encounters especially in his social life within the community.