It was another glorious day for Malta yesterday, this time at the athletics track, where Kevin Arthur Moore secured the country’s third gold medal of these Games and youngster Nicole Gatt and Rachid Chouhal both claimed a bronze medal.

The day certainly belonged to Kevin Arthur Moore who ran a great 400m to claim gold in a most convincing manner.

Moore clocked a 47.68 seconds in winning the event ahead of second placed Etes Brice of Monaco who clocked 48.63 and third placed Antoniou Kyriakos of Cyprus, who finished in a time of 48.74.

Another Maltese runner, James D’Alfonso finished fifth in 49.26 seconds while Cypriot Riginos Menelaou was disqualified after a false start.

After the event, Moore said he was very happy with his first medal win for Malta. “It is great to have won this medal for my country. I really enjoyed the race as there was some tough competition from the other rivals. I am really excited about the prospect of taking part in more events for Malta.

“I will be missing the forthcoming European Championship (Second Division) being held in Iceland. But I hope to be selected for Malta, perhaps in the London Olympics next year, if that is possible. Moreover, I also will be very glad to return and run for Malta in two years’ time at the Games in Luxembourg. I think this was an extremely good competition with a high standard,” he added.

Young Nicole Gatt, still 14 years old, stole the limelight early on as she won a bronze medal in the 400 metres for women.

The youngster ran strongly all the way to clock a brilliant 57.07 beating her previous best of 57.47 set at the recently held national Open championships at the Marsa Stadium.

Gatt said she was also very happy with this first medal at such level. “I think I can go further in future. I am still young and I will be doing my utmost to continue improving my levels in future,” she said.

In winning the bronze, Gatt defeat none other than Francesca Xuereb who clocked 57.55 to finish fifth. She improved her time registered in the heat (58.55) by one second, but it was not enough for her to finish on the podium.

Rachid Chouhal is once again a medal winner at these Games we have now become quite accustomed with his successes.

Yesterday he finished third in the Long Jump event taking the bronze with his last leap of 6.97 metres which beat Andy Grech’s best leap of 6.89 metres.

It was a close affair between the two Maltese athletes who took part alongside two other competitors – winner Kristinn Torfason of Iceland with a leap of 7.67 metres and Zacharias Arnos of Cyprus who was second with a leap of 7.53 metres.

Diane Borg maintained her impressive form in these Games yesterday as she qualified comfortably for today’s 200m women’s final.

She clocked 24.34 seconds to finish second in her heat, which was won by Anna R. Papaioannou of Cyprus in 24.31.

The 24.34 of Borg was the second best time among the seven participants, six of whom qualified for the final.

And to cap a second fantastic day for Maltese athletes, it was Rebecca Camilleri who completed the day with a silver medal in the Long Jump.

She leapt a fine 6.21 metres and was only second to Nektaria Panayi of Cyprus who had a best leap of 6.35m which assured her of the gold medal.

Alessandra Pace also took part in the event, but was slightly injured.

The other Maltese athlete in action yesterday was Owen Camilleri who qualified for the 200m final with a time of 22.02 seconds.