Keen tussles expected for Challenge Cup
If last year’s results are a mirror of this season’s competition, then non-stadia encounters once again promise to provide keen tussles for the coveted Athletics Malta Challenge Cup for teams.
While the first encounter last year saw Mellieha (the eventual league winners) and Zurrieq Wolves, sharing first place with 35 penalty points each, this year the latter won the first race more comfortably, their first quartet incurring solely 30 to the Blues’ 41 points.
Hot on the Mellieha club’s heels, another three points adrift, were Pembroke Athleta.
In the competition for women, St Patrick’s looks like resuming where they left off last season, with Pembroke again being the leading opposition. However, no team can afford to be complacent, especially with Zurrieq Wolves and particularly Mellieha, aiming to finish higher than in past seasons.
On the individual front, Jonathan Balzan, of St Patrick’s, remains the local man to beat. His performance over the 5 kilometre distance stopped the clock on 15minutes 53seconds, ahead of Gerald Grech’s (AS Libertas) by 23 seconds.
Charles Cilia of Mellieha was third just three seconds later. Among the women, the time gap was more pronounced, Lisa Marie Bezzina (Pembroke Athleta) leading in Angela Sammut by 34 seconds when she was judged to breast the imaginary tape on 18 minutes and 43 seconds. Third was Joelle Cortis, from the same St Patrick’s club, on 19 and a half minutes.
Participation at this first race of the season was 9 per cent lower than at the corresponding Bugibba course last year, although, on the positive side, a good number of fresh new faces were present, especially among the women, something which does nothing but credit to the sport.
The real test for non-stadia competition, like in any other sport remains, of course, the participation of the youngsters, who get their first chance today with a cross-country event at the Marsa Sports Grounds, with various distanced races designed with age in mind. The competition, to which all clubs, schools and individuals are invited, starts with the first event at 8.30am.