Malta’s Danica Bonello Spiteri won yesterday’s women’s triathlon in one hour, eleven minutes and 42 seconds.

This was a splendid result for the Maltese athlete in another successful year for her. A more than satisfied Danica said after the event that she will now follow a cool down period to bring an end for this year’s activities and looks forward to next year’s events.

She said that the training programme she is doing in Leeds during her studies, is giving her great opportunities with several triathlon events of very high level in the UK. Danica Bonello Spiteri had a very good swim, increased her lead durting the cycling part where she gained more than 20 seconds per lap over second placed Maria Grazia Prestigiacomo.

In the run event Danica lost some of her margin but still won with a substantial advantage over Prestigiacomo who clocked one hour 13 minutes and 15 seconds. The other Maltese in the competition was Donatelle Camilleri who clocked one hour, 18 minutes and 12 seconds.

In the men’s category Carl Attard finished seventh clocking one hour, five minuts and 22 seconds, whilst Keth Galea placed tenth in one hour, seven minutes and 31 seconds. Galea lost precious time as he lost his number in the cycling part.

In the overall event competition, Sicily won the event with a total of 29 points against Malta’s 23 points.

In bowling after winning the mixed doubles event, the four local bowlers continued with their clean sweep yesterday winning the teams event and the doubles event.

The team event was keenly contested but in the end Malta emerged victorious winning the contest by 2196 pins against 2158.

Neil Sullivan, Justin Caruana Scicluna, Sue Abela and Tiziana Carannante had another slow start like they did in the mixed doubles event.

But once again the locals increased their tempo to beat the Sicilians by 38 pins.

In the last event, the doubles event, Malta suffered its only setback losing the men’s doubles competition when Francesco Bellomonte and Salvatore Polizzotto totaled 2504 pins against the 2344 pins scored by Maltese pair, Neil Sullivan and Justin Caruana Scicluna.

However the girls made up for this as Sue Abela and Tizina Carannante scored 2434 piQns against Sicilian duo Daniela Graziano and Provvidenza Rapisarda’s 2196.

In weightlifting Nicole Gatt obtained a national record in both the snatch and the clean and jerk competition. She obtained this result during the weightlifting event during the fifth edition of the Frindship Games being held in Syracuse Sicily.

Nicole lifted 36 kg in the clean event, with her previous record being 35 kg. In the clean and jerk event she lifted 52 kg, tow 2kg more than her previous record.

In the men’s event, Matthew Muscatt Inglott lifted 90 kg in the clean event and 115 kg in the clean and jerk. Clint Grech obtained 87 kg in the snatch and 114 in the clean and jerk. Our other weightlifter Rodmar Pulis lifted 85 kg in the clean event but had to retire after a slight shoulder injury.

In the overall teams event Siciliy won easily this contest totaling 1,146.22 points, against Malta’s 633.91 points.

In the fencing competition Malta obtained mixed results with a defeat against a superior Sicilian side and a dramatic victory against a selection from Syracuse.

The Malta team composed of Pierre Bianchi, Andre Zahra and Paul Borg, immediately found the going hard against a determined Sicilian team. The Maltese did their best even having their good moments especially in the initial bouts with Sicily only 14-10 in front in the third match. But as the event dragged on, the Sicilians composed of Santino, Repetto, and Spadino, showed their worth winning the match 45-27.

The Maltese later faced the team from Syracuse. Bruno, Carbone and Balestazzi were of the same caliber of the Maltese fencers and the encounter proved to be nail biting affair.

The Maltese led 40-35 before the final duel, but Bruno staged a remarkable recovery making it 44-44. But Andre Zahra obtained the decisive point for Malta who won 45-44 in a pulsating duel.

In the match between the Sicilian outfits, the Sicily selection beat Syracuse Team 45-30.