A group of eight young swimmers, four male and four females whose ages vary from 15 to 23 years, are going to participate in the World Swimming Championships organised by FINA being held in Rome later this month.

These are Andrea Agius, Neil Agius, Edward Caruana Dingli, Mark Sammut and Nicol Cremona, Melinda Sue Micallef, Davina Mangion and Talisa Pace. All these swimmers form part of the national swimming team and are coached by national swimming coach Andy Colbourn.

This is a golden opportunity for these swimmers to take part in these championships when one note that there will be more than 2,800 swimmers from all over the world taking part.

Although the minimum qualifying times are not so stringent, the Maltese swimmers still had to train hard to ensure their selection by the ASA to be able to participate in these championships.

They have been training very hard putting in a minimum of 30 hours training in a week. During the last national championships that were held in June at the National pool of Tal-Qroqq, various national records were broken in both individual strokes and in relay races, and this augurs well that these swimmers will do well in Rome.

It is hoped that these swimmers will continue with their good performance in Rome by breaking more national records or obtaining personal best times in their individual races and in relays.

Andy Colbourn, the national coach, commented that “the team is looking forward to the World Championships very much as this will mark the culmination of all the hard work that the team has put in this year and we are hoping to raise the tally of national records broken this year to an amazing 30 and maybe even slightly more. The swimmers are well prepared and are just impatient to get to Rome and start racing.”

The swimmers together with the coach and members of the ASA Swimming Board are going to meet the President of Malta, His Excellency Dr George Abela tomorrow before they leave for Rome next Tuesday.