T & F Challenge 3 – Mifsud sets New Junior Record

The club made its presence felt with a number of good performances in all disciplines,sprints to middle-distance, the steeplechase, jumps and throwing events.

In the cadets and youths 100m event, victories were achieved by our talented girls Alessia Cristina and Carla Scicluna who won their races in a time of 13.47sec and 13.32sec respectively. The boys Sean Mallia (cadet) and Gary Ghirxi (youth) placed second with a time of 13.91sec and 12.35sec respectively, albeit against a strong head-wind. Our cadet Luca Falzon placed second in the longer sprint event 400m, with a time of 57.37.

In the 600m middle distance event for cadets Alessia continued with her fine showing, recording 1:50.73, followed by her Pembroke team-mate Hayley Vella with a time of 1:58.03. In the equivalent event for boys, Sean Mallia passed the finish line first in a time of 1:43.38 while in the youths 1500m event, Thea Bonett won with a time of 5:32.90.

As if running events were all Alessia could master, she went on to win the Long Jump cadets with a leap of 4.04m. In other field events Nicole Vassallo threw the cadet discus a remarkable distance of 20.42m as Martina Mamo, another prolific thrower, won the hammer with a significant throw of 30.35m, a two meter improvement from her performance at the previous competition. In this event Nicole Vassallo was second with a throw of 23.34m

On to the senior events and some creditable results are worth a notice. In the women 100m, the club was represented by one of our top sprinters, Robyn Zammit, currently based in the UK to pursue her studies and at her first competition since recovering from knee surgery. Robyn finished the race in second position in a time of 12.96sec, behind the current leading sprinter Rachel Fitz, who won the race in a time of 12.68sec. In the men’s event, Julian Mifsud had to concede first place to his training partner Luke Bezzina of St.Patricks, who won the event with a time of 11.30s, Julian stopping the clock on 11.51 seconds. Here again, these sprints were run against a strong head-wind. Meanwhile, Daniel Saliba, focusing his season on the 400m hurdles, attempted the 200m sprint event, finishing second with a creditable time of 23.43 against a strong head-wind of 3 meters per second, behind Luke Bezzina who clocked 22.83 seconds

At the longer-distanced events once more, Dario Mangion, on his return from a training camp abroad went over the line second running the 1500m in a time of 4:05.11. Meantime, in the 3000m steeplechase, Pembroke Athleta had three athletes taking part. Mark Herrera winning in 9;49.52 followed by Luke Micallef and Isaac Bonett, who finished the race in 10:12.70 and 12:07.28 respectively. Our leading female long distance runner – Lisa Marie Bezzina, took part in the 10,000m clocking 38:09.82, less than a minute away from the GSSE qualifying time.

More promise in the senior field events was yet to come, where Andrew Cassar Torregiani and Ian Grech took part in the long jump, the latter winning the event with a 6.76m leap. Our leading female thrower, Joanne Vella threw the Javelin a distance of 37.87m, closing in to her national record mark. Consolidating their performance, Edward Bezzina won the shot put with a throw of 10.96m as Luke Farrugia hurled the Discus a distance of 47.41m. In the Hammer throw, David Huskinson (M60) and Kurt Bonnici threw 24.11m and 20.42m respectively. Last but not least, Bradley Mifsud continued to sparkle in his favourite throwing event – the Javelin. In fact Bradley set yet another national junior record with his winning throw 60.40m, clearly determined to not only improve this record further, but in truth going all out for the National Open Record in this discipline. Like with all the rest of our valiant athletes, Pembroke Athleta is right behind you, Brad, so GO FOR IT!

Click here for full results.