Over the past weeks the Internationali season took off, with the season locally commencing next Saturday with the first pre-season meeting to be held at Marsa starting at 1.30pm organised by the Malta Amateur Athletics Association. 

Some of the top local national team athletes have, however, already taken advantage of the international competitions for their first tests. 

Last week Rebecca Camilleri (Pembroke Athleta) competed in Ancona, Italy, with some very creditable results over the 60m running 7.77sec and 7.76sec for the shortest of sprint distances. 

Last Sunday her team mate and male counterpart, Andy Grech, participated in an open meeting in Lee Valley, reaching the final in the 60m to better his personal record to 7.07sec. 

Lee Valley, the training base for the Xuereb twins Martina and Francesca, saw some other Maltese athletes test their legs. 

Martina (La Salle), who this year decided to make the switch back to the 400m event, ran in her first 400m indoor race for some time, winning her heat in a time of 62.20sec. 

Her twin sister Francesca (La Salle) ran the same distance in 59.69sec also winning her heat. 

Neil Brimmer (Zurrieq Wolves) ran the same distance on Saturday winning his heat in a time of 52.22 sec, this being a national best for the distance. He then doubled the distance on Sunday, again winning his heat with a new personal indoor best of 2min 02sec.

On the jumpers end, Alessandra Pace (Pembroke Athleta), who is currently studying in the British capital, competed in the triple jump with a great season opener of 11.89m. 

This week we will also see the season openers for the recently crowned National Sportswoman, Diane Borg (La Salle), who competed at the indoor European circuit in Vienna yesterday and will move compete in Linz tomorrow.    

These athletes are also supported by the Malta Olympic Committee through the Elite athlete schemes.