Malta’s athletics calendar reaches its first milestone of the season on Saturday with the
Winter Championships providing athletes with an opportunity to impose their mark on the
season and possibly qualify for the international events scheduled months ahead. They will
be also competing in the recently-refurbished Matthew Micallef St John after its formal
inauguration last week.
Some fast times are expected on the tartan track, with several exciting races scheduled on
Saturday. The 60m male race promises to be a scintillating high-speed encounter, with no
less than seven athletes running below the 7.10s mark this season. Among the women, on
the same distance Carla Scicluna will measure herself against Claire Azzopardi in an exciting
duel.
Thrilling battles are also expected on the 300m distance with Steve Camilleri, Graham
Pellegrini and Krestien Micallef challenging each other among the men. While Janet Richard
is odds-on favourite to take top spot among the girls on this distance, Martha Spiteri and
Kay Testa will continue their battle for a place on the GSSE 4x400m team.
On the 600m males Christian Chetcuti will test his fitness in first race of his season in a field
of 11 athletes from different age categories. The longest race will take athletes to the
3000m distance, with seven athletes including Dillon Cassar who will try and secure a fast
time on the track. This race is expected bring about record-breaking times across all
categories.
For field enthusiasts, the triple jump pit will likely provide most excitement, with both male
and female events offering an interesting duel. Ian Paul Grech and James Armani go head-
to-ahead among the men, while Claire Azzopardi and Rebecca Sare’ finally square-off
against each other after battling it out in London and Ancona earlier this year. Azzopardi had
taken the national record from Sare’ in British capital, but the latter took just a week to
claim it back in Italy with a 12.62m jump.
In the discus throw, Luke Farrugia and Bradley Mifsud will fight it out for the first major
honour of the season.
Meanwhile, this week brought another stunning performance by a Maltese athlete abroad,
this time by Charlotte Wingfield who made it through two rounds to the final at the Scottish
Indoor Athletics Championships, where she finished in fourth place. Her 24.03s timing in the
semi-final meant a new national indoor record on the 200m distance, a record which had
stood for six years.
Three more athletes will be flying the Maltese flag abroad this weekend. Mireya Cassar
(Pembroke AC) will begin her outdoor season throwing in Germany on Saturday,
while Gabriel Farrugia (Evolve) and Joelle Cortis will be participating in the ‘MonacoRun’ a
world athletics label event over the 5k distance.
