Neil Agius and Andrea Agius, two ASA National swimmers, participated successfully in the British Gas ASA Masters and Senior Age Groups Swimming Championships (25m) held in Sheffield, UK during the past weekend and managed to break 11 of the national short-course records and establish a new mark in the 800m free.
Neil Agius took part in the 50m back event and erased the record held by Christian Gialanze of 29.36 since March 1996 when he came in the eighth place overall to register a national record with a time of 29.23.
He repeated the success when he participated in the 1,500m free and finished third overall erasing the previous national record held by Medati Valhmor of 20.14.20 since January 1992 when he clocked 17.14.77 to register a new national record in this event.
Neil Agius erased the 100m free, 200m free, 400m free records when he clocked 00.54.07, 1.57.10, and 4.04.96 respectively. He established a new record in 800m when he clocked 8.44.20. He also erased the record of the 100m fly established by Robert Micallef in July 09 in Portugal when he clocked 1.00.30. In these events Neil won gold in the 400m free, silver in the 800m free and bronze in the 200m free and 100m IM.
In the 100 IM event, Andrea Agius ended second overall and registered a new national record of 1.00.79 after improving on the record in this event held by Christian Gialanze since March 1991. His team-mate, Neil Agius, came third with a time of 1.00.84. Andrea also broke the national record in the 100m breast stroke when he finished in third place and cleared the national record of 1.09.03 held also by Christian Gialanze when he clocked 1.07.10. Andrea also erased the 50m and 200m breast stroke held previously by Daniel Galea when he clocked 30.23 and 2.30.07 respectively winning a bronze medal in each event. He also equalled the 50m free record of 00.24.96.
Neil and Andrea participated in this competition with the Maxwell swimming team thanks to the arrangements made through their colleague Steven Slee. In fact Steven, together with Neil and Andrea, also participated in the 4 x 50m medley team relay for Maxwell swimming team and came second overall behind City of Oxford and third in the 4 x 50m free.
The past weekend proved to be an excellent experience for both Maltese swimmers who can now look forward to participate in the FINA Dubai Short Course World Championships being held in December 2010.