Vella Clark, Borg to compete for first time at World Gymnastics Championships

Malta has qualified as a country for the World Championships for the first time in history with a very positive performance by gymnasts Tara Vella Clark and Ella Borg at this year’s European Artistic Championship held in Munich, Germany.

Vella Clark and Borg will be representing Malta at the World Championships which will be held in Liverpool between October 29 and November 6.

Sixteen-year-old Vella Clark and eighteen-year-old Borg started their gymnastics career at Gymstars when they were only five- and three-years-old respectively.

Guided by their coach Nataliya Pantileeva, Vella Clark and Borg made a name for themselves over the years by achieving several personal honours for their club, to which they remained loyal to this day.

Amongst Vella Clark’s more recent achievements, she achieved a historical moment for Malta when in December 2020 she qualified for the finals at the European Championships in Turkey, finishing eighth overall.

In January 2021, Vella Clark was awarded the Atlas Athlete of the Month of the month and in June she took part in the Gymnastics World Cup in Croatia obtaining very good results. She is currently the first runner up for the title of Senior national champion.

Borg has won the title of senior national champion for three years running.

In March 2022 she took part in the World Cup in Doha where is qualified for the finals in the bars event.

She was also a nominee for SportMalta’s Female Sports Youth of the Year Award.

In June she took part with Vella Clark at the Gymnastics World Cup in Croatia, where she also obtained very good results.

Vella Clark is the first Maltese gymnast to ever qualify for the World Championships and compete on all four apparatus and for the all-round event in Liverpool for which only 13 teams and 23 individual gymnasts could qualify.

Borg, on the other hand, qualified as an event specialist on bars, beam and floor.