Malta again finished in ninth place at the European Championship (third league) in Reykjavik, Iceland, the past weekend.
On a glorious sunny, though slightly cold, day in the Icelandic capital, Malta had the satisfaction of seeing one of its athletes, Antonella Chouhal, setting a new national record in the hammer throw, while Diane Borg was a very good third in the 100 and 200 metres. She also had a third place on the first day in the 4 x 100m relay.
Also impressive were the 4 x 400 relay teams, with the women winning their heat by a huge margin. The men’s 4 x 100 relay team also won their heat in an impressive manner against strong opponents.
Unfortunately, these two wins were not enough to see them finishing in a high position as they both finished eighth – the men from among 14 teams, and the women from among 11 teams.
Charlene Attard, Celine Pace, Martina Xuereb and Francesca Xuereb formed the women’s team, while Steve Camilleri, Matthew Croker, Karl Farrugia and Neil Brimmer for the men’s.
The women clocked 3:56.90, while the men’s time was registered as 3:21.40.
However, these results enabled Malta to finish in ninth place, overtaking Montenegro by four points in the final standings.
It is to be said that this was an event which was keenly contested. With two teams being promoted, it was a continuous fight between Israel, Cyprus and Moldova. Eventually, it was the former two nations who occupied the two promotion spots at the end with 490 and 469 points respectively. Moldova finished third with 440 points.
Antonella a hero
It was a great day for Antonella Chouhal yesterday becoming the hero of the Maltese contingent.
Taking part in the hammer throw alongside 12 other competitors in a different venue outside Reykjavik, she set her new record at 35.30 metres on her third and final throw, after having registered 32.92m and 33.43m in her first two throws. Her previous record was that of 33.81 metres.
She was very happy with her performance, but insisted later that she would have been in a better position had she started training for the event earlier. “I have only been training it for the past month. It is not easy, but with proper training and coaching we can improve considerably in this relatively new discipline. I am obviously very happy to have set this new mark. It gives me a lot of encouragement in my efforts to further improve my standards,” she said.
Chouhal finished eighth in the event. The competition was won by Marina Merghiev of Macedonia with a best throw of 67.41m.
At the main stadium in Reykjavik, the first in action were the athletes taking part in the two 100m extra races which, however, carried no points for classification purposes.
Charlene Attard won the women’s event in a time of 12.38 seconds, beating her five opponents, including Martina Xuereb, who finished third in 12.54 seconds.
In the men’s event, Rachid Chouhal finished fifth in 11.07 seconds, while Mario Bonello clocked 11.27 seconds to finish 10th.
In the 110m hurdles for men, veteran Mario Bonello represented Team Malta – the first time he took part in such an event. As was expected he finished a distant 12th from 13 competitors in 21.19 seconds, but actually managed to get four points for Malta. The event was won by Rahib Mammadov of Azerbaijan in 14.20 seconds.
Christian Luke Chetcuti finished 10th in the men’s 800 metres in a time of 1:58.85. Dujstin Emrani of Israel was first home in a time of 1:50.84 minutes.
Lisa Marie Bezzina took part in the 1,500 metres and finished sixth out of 12 competitors. She clocked 4:40.03 and handed Malta a good 10 points. Luiza Gega of Albania was first in 4:19.50.
Diane Borg maintained her good form even if she had to content herself with third place in the women’s 200m. She clocked 27.74 seconds, while the winner, Olga Lenskiy had a time of 24.26.
In the men’s 200m, Owen Camilleri finished a good ninth out of `15 competitors, in a time of 22.33 seconds.
Gerald Grech was a distant last in the 3,000m steeplechase, finishing in 10:49.77. The winner was Ion Luchianov of Macedonia in 8:54.70. It was evident that this was not Grech’s favourite race.
In the 3,000 metres, Mark Herrera, taking part instead of Jonathan Balzan, finished 10th in 9:06.89.
Giselle Camilleri also did well in finishing fifth in the women’s 5,000m in a time of 17:25.83 – a seasonal best for the veteran athlete.
Field events
In the field events, the first Maltese in action was Andy Grech. He finished in eighth place registering a score of 2.85m. The winner of the event was Yevgeniy Olkhovsky of Israel with a score of 5.05 metres.
In the men’s javelin, Malta’s Kevin Galea was 11th. His first throw of 39.77m was his best yesterday. The event was won by top man Antoine Wagner of Luxembourg who had an excellent best throw of 71.69.
In the Men’s triple jump, Ian Paul Grech finished 13th from 15 competitors with his best effort of 13.26 metres. The winner, Vladimir Letnicov of Macedonia, had a best effort of 16.07 metres.
Antonella Chouhal was again in action in the afternoon in the women’s shot put event, where she finished 10th with a best throw of 9.85 metres. The women’s high jump saw Chloe Gambin finished fifth with a leap of 1.60m, while in the Men’s Discus, Mario Mifsud finished 11th with a throw of 37.94 metres.
In the women’s long jump, Rebecca Camilleri finished fifth out of 15 competitors with her best jump being a 5.70m.
At the end of the Championships, Valerie Farrugia, Council member of Athletics Malta, expressed her satisfaction at the results obtained by the Maltese athletes.
She said: “We have managed to retain ninth position. Considering the circumstances, I must say that the results and performances have been satisfactory. In fact, we also had the satisfaction of seeing two of our athletes setting new national records – Rebecca Camilleri (2.70m) in the women’s pole vault and Antonella Chouhal in the Hammer throw (35.30).”
Ms Farrugia said that it could have been a better result for Malta had the rules allowed the participating nations to make use of their younger athletes such as in the case of he up and coming Nicole Gatt, who was ineligible as she is still under age. “I must also mention Christian Luke Chetcuti, 17, who raced against much more experienced runners, but fared extremely well in his first experience at such levels.”
Ms Farrugia added: “We also wish to congratulate a veteran athlete like Giselle Camilleri, who despite becoming a mother a few months ago, still obtained two good results on the two days of competition.”
Maurice Spiteri, leader of the contingent, said the results obtained here justified our decision to take part as one nation instead of forming part of the European Small States team. “The team was united and all the athletes did their best to put Malta on the map. Everyone behaved well during the event. I must thank the officials and the coaches who contributed towards the smooth running of the events in which the Maltese athletes were involved.
“As a member of the Council of Athletics Malta, I also want to thank European Athletics for their support. Without their financial aid, it would not have been possible to take part.”
The two coaches, Mario Bonello and Mario Micallef, were also very satisfied with the results.
Bonello, coach of the sprinters and relay teams, said: “Overall the results must be considered as good. We all know that our athletes were geared for the Games of the Small States of Europe. It was obvious they were tired, but they all did their very best here. To mention just one sprinter, Diane Borg, she had three third places in such a high level meeting. That must be considered as very positive,” he said.
Mario Micallef, coach of the long distance athletes, also said the Maltese had satisfying performances. “Also positive was the performance of 17-year-old Christian Luke Chetcuti in the 800m. He confirmed his promise and that was also very positive. We also had new faces trying new disciplines such as the hammer throw and the 3,000m steeplechase.” The two coaches said they just hoped to see more athletes getting involved in athletics to have a stronger squad in future.”
Diane Borg, once again one of the most successful athletes here, said she was very happy with her results. “The levels here were even higher than those in Liechtenstein. Now I’m looking forward to my participation at the Under 23 European Championship in Ostrava, Czech Republic, next month and later in the South Korea World Championships, if I manage to qualify,” she said.