Carla Scicluna just missed out on bettering her personal best in her debut at the World Indoors Championships when she took part in the 60 metres heats in Belgrade.
The Pembroke Athleta sprinter was on the starting blocks of the fifth heat that also featured two contenders for a place on the podium in the 60 metres final – British sprinter Daryll Neita and Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson.
It was Neita who stormed home to victory in a time of 7.13 seconds with Jackson finishing just behind on 7.16 seconds.
Israel’s Diana Vaisman took the other qualifying spot when placing third in 7.23 seconds.
Scicluna managed to cross the finish line in seventh place with a time of 7.71 seconds. Her effort was just outside her own personal best time of 7.67 seconds.
The Maltese sprinter, however, did finish ahead of a prospective rival at the 2023 Games of the Small States of Europe after outsprinting Monaco’s Charlotte Afriat who finished last in the heat on 8.06 seconds.
Jordan Gusman was the other Maltese athlete in action on Friday and the GSSE double gold medallist put on a fighting display in the 3,000 metres heat but still was not enough to book his place in Sunday’s final.
Gusman was up against some top quality opponents in his heat such as Marc Scott, of Great Britain, Kenya’s Daniel Ebenyo and Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi.
The GSSE double gold medallist for Malta in the Montenegro GSSE started brightly and for much of the first nine laps of the race he was battling in front for one of the four qualifying spots.
But the race pace increased considerably in the closing laps and Gusman drifted behind to finish the race in eighth place in a time of eight minutes and 2.13 seconds.
Scott won the race in seven minutes 54.90 seconds to finish ahead of Ebenyo (7:54.97).
Belgium’s Isaac Kimeli was third in 7.55.75 while Maximilian Thorwirth, of Germany, took the final automatic spot in 7:56.20.
