2005 MAAA awards

The Malta Amateur Athletic Association (MAAA) has just held its Awards Night to announce the best performers of 2005.

The men's Athlete of the Year title went to Darren Gilford who established a new record of 10.54 seconds in the 100m. The feat was achieved during the National Championships in May.

Diane Borg, 15, 100m record holder (12.11) was the female Athlete of the Year. She established the new mark at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Morocco earlier this year.

The year's best performance was that of Rashid Chouhal. He set a new record of 7.71m in the long jump. The women's 4x100 team (Therese Mallia, Charlene Attard, Lara Scerri and Diane Borg), who won GSSE silver in Andorra in a new record time of 47.48s, received the prize for the best technical performance of 2005.

Other awards went to Jeandre Mallia and Charlene Attard in the juniors category, Alistair Bezzina and Lara Scerri in Intermediates, Leighton Grech and Diane Borg in Youths, and Mark Anthony and Julie Grech in Cadets.

During his address, MAAA president Anthony Chircop thanked all officials and helpers for their assistance during the year.

On the awards' presentation day, he said, the MAAA had written a new chapter in its history. A few hours before the Awards Night, the association had aired its first from a series of TV programmes on Smash TV. These are broadcast on Tuesdays with a repetition on Saturdays.