The Track and Field season at the beginning of the second decade commenced this weekend in what promises to be a historic year for Maltese sport and for Maltese Athletics in particular.

Without any doubt the highlight of the season being the forthcoming third week of June, when Malta will be hosting some 500 athletes and a good number of administrators, coaches and other personnel connected with the sport, our local athletes have good reason to try and make theirs the Malta colours.

At no other time, except at the Games for the Small States of Europe, can Maltese representation be out in high numbers.

Even taking the GSSE as a parallel, the European Championships Third League will not only afford the locals, as a team, an increase in direct foreign competition – no less than 14 other nations besides Malta will be taking part – but even the events they can take part in will be more numerous.

During the GSSE there are always some events that are not contested, because of a meagre entry. Not so in the European championships, where each nation will be vying for team points, besides their athletes going for the individual honours.

Therefore, it was no coincidence that some of the events contested in the first meet of 2010 witnessed the continuing progress of some of the protagonists from last year.

Long jumpers Aleksandra Pace and Andy Grech outpaced the competition in the 60m sprint before coming out tops at their favourite event.

Andy posted a time of 7.08 seconds while the 2009 female athlete of the year stopped the clock on 8.11 seconds. To cap the afternoon Andy cleared 7.02 metres while the Zurrieq Wolves jumper managed 5.68 metres.

Moreover, the wind against was on occasions quite strong, hindering better results. Theirs, however, were not the only results of note.

At his first taste of senior competition, the Pembroke Athleta promising sprinter Clayton Sheldon, 16-to-be come October, was second behind Andy Grech in a good time of 7.34 seconds.

Similarly, Tamara Vella, from the same club, was shy of Alessandra by just one-tenth of a second. Later in the day, Francesca Xuereb, now in the La Salle camp, ran away with the 300m race in a time of 40.98 seconds while Marija Sciberras, in the afternoon’s opener, flew over the 60m hurdles in a time of 9.51 seconds.

Overall, a very promising start to an eventful season.