Curtains down on MAAA Track and Field season 2018

MAAA Track and Field season 2018 brought the curtains down on Monday. A hectic season which started on 3rd February with Preseason 1.

They were 6 months of numerous Preseason meetings, Challenges, Youth Nationals, Open Nationals, Relay Championships and Summer Meetings.

A series of three Summer Meetings were held on three consecutive Wednesdays being the 18th and 25th July and 1st August.

The main aims for these summer meetings are twofold. First for Cadets and Youths to be assessed at best prior to selection for European Kids Athletics Festival, an annual event held in Brno, the Czech Republic and Secondly for the Seniors to seek qualifications for GSSE 2019 at Montenegro.

There were some outstanding results by various athletes in the Open Category.

Monalisa Camilleri (Libertas), Luke Micallef (Pembroke), Paula Grech (St Patricks AC) and Antonella Chouhal (Rush AC) all raised to the occasion in a way or another.

Monalisa Camilleri, who really had a stupendous season broke the 10minute barrier in the 3k in 9:58.56 in Summer Meeting 1.

In Summer Meeting 2 she established a new remarkable personal best of 4:32.84 in the 1500m edging out Pembroke Athleta s Lisa Marie Bezzina by over 9 seconds.

In Summer Meeting 2, Luke Micallef (Pembroke Athleta) set a new national record in the 3000m steeplechase in 9:24.89 improving the record by a good 7 seconds from the former one. Apart from the NR, Luke Micallef met the MQS for GSSE 2019 and henceforth he will form part of Team Malta.

In Summer Meeting 3, Luke Micallef continued to impress with a new fast PB in the 3k flat in 8:47.43 just a second higher than Charlton Debono’s PB.

Paula Grech, St Patricks AC, enjoyed a highly positive season in the 800m and it was a welcoming new comer.

She impressed considerably on each and every race, coming close to meet the MQS for GSSE 2019 several time.

She finally managed to achieve it in Summer meeting 1 in a remarkable PB and SB of 2:14.01, half a second better than the required MQS.

At the eleventh hour, evergreen Antonella Chouhal (Rush AC) broke her own National Record for the umpteenth time with her 4th and last throw of 46.75m improving the NR by 2 metres and qualifying for GSSE 2019 Games.

Savio Athletic stalwart Matthew Croker, tried hard to qualify for GSSE 2019 games but his timings in Summer meetings 2 and 3 of 1:55.84 and 1:55.98 were not good enough for qualification.

Matthew competed in Belgium and Uk with times of 1:55.17 and 1:55.25 respectively. Unfortunately for Matthew and Team Malta amid clocking 4 remarkable times, the qualification was short by just 0.5s.

Yesterday s 100m for Rachid Chouhal proved to be a fastest one with 11.18.

As for youths, ever impressing Kurt Zahra (Rush AC) managed to improve twice the all best performance in the 60m by running 7.35 and 7.33 in Summer Meetings 2 and 3 respectively.

High Jump Men Open, Luca Farrugia (Rush AC) enjoyed a noteworthy leap of 1.70m.

For full results please visit http://malta.opentrack.run