Malta secures five gold medals to place second overall at Small Nations Championships

Athletics Malta has enjoyed an outstanding performance at the Athletics Championships of the Small States of Europe that were held in Gibraltar on Saturday.

The team guided by technical director Mario Bonello secured no less than five gold medals on highly-successful day for Maltese at the continental championships that brought together not only GSSE countries but also nations of a far bigger level than ours.

Team Malta ended the day with five gold, six silver and three bronze for an impressive tally of 14 medals.

That lifted the team to second place on 115 points, seven adrift of championship winners Cyprus.

Luxembourg were third on 108 points.

Gina McNamara handed Team Malta its first gold medal of the championships when she stormed to victory in the 1,500m race.

McNamara crossed the finish line in a new championship record time of 4:45.43 to finish ahead of Kosovo’s Gresa Bakraci (4:46.83) and Iceland’s Embla Margret Hreminsdottir (4:50.41).

McNamara then added two more medals when face placing third in the 800 metres when crossing the finish line in 2:09.09 minutes.

Minutes later, the Maltese runner was on the starting line of the 5,000m and took silver with a gritty display that saw her stop the clock on 18:02.62.

Jared Micallef struck gold with a storming run in the 800 metres as he crossed the finish line in one minute 52.87 seconds.

Paul Moya, of Andorra, was second in 1:53.57 while Luxembourg’s Mathis Espagnet took bronze in 1:53.76.

In the sprints events, Team Malta completed a memorable double in the 200 metres race as Charlotte Wingfield stormed to victory in a fine time of 24.20 seconds. She finished ahead of team-mate Carla Scicluna, who stopped the watch on 24.45. Armenia’s Gayane Chiloyan took bronze in 24.64 seconds.

In the men’s race Beppe Grillo had to settle with the bronze medal when clocking 21.57s.

The gold medal was won by Cyprus’ runner Stavros Avgoustinou, who clocked a time of 21.24 and finished ahead of Albania’s Franko Burraj (21.52)

Another two silver medals came from the sprint events when Janet Richard placed second in the 400m race when clocking 54.32, behind winner Kalliopi Kountouri, of Cyprus, who ran 54.18.

Beppe Grillo also placed second in the 100m with a 10.71s time. San Marino’s Francesco Sansovini won the race in 10.63.

In the 3,000m steeplechase, national champion Luke Micallef added another silver medal, finishing second in 9:08.35, behind Gil Weicherding, of Luxembourg.

In the 100m women, Carla Scicluna finished third in 12.13s, in a very close finish, with Claire Azzopardi closing in fifth place in 12.18s. 

In the 400m men, Graham Pellegrini won the bronze medal when finishing in 48.56s.

Rachela Pace came agonisingly close to set a new personal best in the long jump when she leapt to 6.28m and take a silver medal.

The US-based long jumper was just three centimetres shot of her personal best to finish behind gold medallist Birna Kristjansdottir, of Iceland, who had a best jump of 6.46 metres.

Team Malta left the best for last after two stunning performances in the men and women’s Swedish Relays.

The women quartet of Janet Richard, Carla Scicluna, Charlotte Wingfield and Claire Azzopardi outpaced Cyprus to grab gold in a time of two minutes 10.62 seconds. Armenia were third to take bronze.

Their male counterparts of Graham Pellegrini, Omar El Aida Chaffey, Matthew Galea Soler and Beppe Grillo stormed to the gold medal when completing the race in 1:54.26. 

They finished ahead of Cyprus and Luxembourg to wrap up a brilliant day for Maltese athletics.