Athletics Malta organised the second athletic meeting of the season last Saturday with the inclusion of all categories.
Clearly, the conditions were again not conducive to outstanding results, as the deadline for qualification to the World Indoors in Valencia is edging ever closer.
To this end, the male 60m provided a lot of excitement and it took a while and a lot of deliberation involving the electronic timing to determine who emerged winner. Finally, Nikolai Portelli of AS Libertas was ruled as the victor - on the same timing of 7.16 seconds - ahead, if one can call that, of Allcomers Aloysians' Karl Farrugia.
The 60m for women was another success for Lara Scerri (Pembroke Athleta) who dipped below the eight-second mark, albeit aided by a following wind of 3.7 metres per second.
Dorianne Micallef from the same club won the mirror event. Clayton Sheldon, in his first event in the Youth category, left everyone in his wake when he won the 100m handsomely in a time of 12.13 seconds.
In the 800m for women. The Xuereb twins, Martina and Francesca, did all the early running but could not shake off Celine Pace. The ex-sprinter and 200m specialist from Pembroke Athleta used her wide experience to challenge for the tape as soon as the three completed the last curve, where with a good turn of speed Pace overtook the Starmax athletes to finish in a good time of 2.23.13 seconds.
However the twins were soon back on the track for the 200m where this time their strength and speed round the bends had them finishing strongly, Martina edging out her sister Francesca to finish in 26.14 seconds.
In the other events for this second day, Ian Ellul (Zurrieq Wolves) won the 400m and Matthew Farrugia for Savio A C the 1500m. Mario Mifsud in the ‘Open?class and Daniel Vella (Youth) were dominant for Allcomers Aloysians in the Shot Putt and Jessica Gauci (St Patrick’s) was supreme in the Discus. The style of Marija Sciberras for AS Libertas was a delight to watch as she sailed effortlessly over the hurdles in her 75m event when she clocked 12.06 seconds, later on in the afternoon going on to win an exciting 200m for youth girls.