ASA National Swimming Championships 2015
Three National records - two individual and one relay, marked the National Swimming Championships held at Tal-Qroqq Sports Complex between the 26 and the 28 of June.
Another two Age group records and a spate of personal bests were also recorded during the meet where no less than 70 events were held over five sessions in the three days.
Julian Harding of Sliema ASC swam the best time of his career when he bettered his own 50m breaststroke record with a time of 28.98 from 29.33 earning him the highest technical achievement in the meet with 779
FINA points. He was also instrumental in the quartet made up of Raoul Stafrace, Matthew Galea and Gabriel Dimech when they lowered the 4x50 freestyle relay record time to 1.35.87 from 1.36.18.
Nicola Muscat of Neptunes WPSC broke the 50 freestyle record twice in as many days leaving her two splits shy of the Women's Olympic Selection Time (B) for next year's Olympic Games to be held in Brazil. She lowered the mark from 26.59 to 26.40 when she jumped first in the 4x50 freestyle relay and then bettered that time again to 26.19 in the individual 50 freestyle event.
Francesca Falzon Young of SW Elite broke the 50 freestyle Age Group C record twice during the weekend. The first with a time of 28.01 which she swam in the first leg of the 4x50m relay then again in the 50m individual event in a time of 27.58 and also the 200m freestyle record with a time of 2.13.17.
These National Championships were also the last, due to retirement from swimming, for veteran national squad member and national record holder Edward Caruana Dingli and also for Daniel Galea - who incidentally will both be showing off the Malta colours for the last time as they are poised to participate in the XXVIII Edition of the Universiade - an international multi-sport event organised by the International University Sports Federation (FISU) for university athletes. These games which will be held in Gwangju South Korea in the coming days will also be attended by national squad members Nicola Muscat, Matthew Zammit and Shanice Cassar.
Matthew Galea will also be participating in the XXVIII Edition of the Universiade - an international multi-sport event organised by the International University Sports Federation (FISU) for university athletes.