Pembroke Athletes at London Indoor Games

Ian Grech, Andy Grech, Daniel Saliba, Clayton Sheldon, Samuel Camilleri, Julian Mifsud and Rebecca Sare’ kicked off their 2016 season at London Indoor Games, which were held on the 30th-31st of January 2016.

On Saturday, our leading jumpers Ian and Rebecca were the first athletes in action, taking part in the triple jump and long jump respectively. In the women’s long jump, Sare’s longest distance measured 5.36m and finished the competition in 3rd place in the senior category. On the other side of the sand pit, Ian, hopped, stepped and jumped a distance of 14.12m. With that performance, Ian placed 5th out of a strong field of 22 athletes.

Later that afternoon, Julian and Samuel took part in the one lap indoor race – 200m sprint. The Pembroke athletes ran in the same heat and they finished the run in 24.41sec and 24.74sec respectively.

On Sunday, Rebecca was first in action, in the women’s triple jump. From the first jump, Sare’ gained the second position and the longest jump out of her four attempts measured 11.90m. However on the last round Sare’ lost her second position to third, as another British athlete landed on 11.91m on her last attempt.

Ian was up next in his more favourite jumping event – the long jump. On his first attempt he cleared 6.64m, which placed him into third position.

Meanwhile the 60m men heats were on and all Pembroke boys were listed for this race. For Andy Grech, this was the first international race in 18 months, after sustaining a long term knee injury and surgery. Ian and Andy were in the same heat, along with another Maltese sprinter Rachid Couhal. Ian, explosive on the starting blocks maintained a good lead during the majority of the run, however Andy maintained a better finish and crossed the finish line just ahead of Ian, clocking 7.19sec and 7.21sec respectively.

Samuel Camilleri won his heat in 7.45sec whilst his training partner Julian, sprinted the race in 7.28sec. Clayton and Daniel were disqualified in the first round of the heats due to a false start.

Back to long jump men, Ian continued with his jumping attempts. He was constantly clearing 6.50m jumps and failed to improve his initial distance of 6.64m. He finished the competition in 4th place out of 17 participants.

An hour later, the boys were all in action again, running the second series of 60m heats. Andy Grech and Ian Grech ran 7.18sec and 7.27sec respectively.  Julian Mifsud and Samuel Camilleri registered new personal bests as they crossed the finish line in 7.26sec and 7.38sec respectively. Unfortunately Daniel suffered a hamstring strain before the finish line and crossed the line in 7.39sec, whilst our pole vaulter Clayton Sheldon, finished the race in 7.46sec.

Worth mentioning is Luke Bezzina’s (St Patricks) performance, as he dipped below 7 seconds barrier twice. Bezzina clocked 6.98sec and 6.93sec.

This trip augurs well for the coming 2016 track and field season!