With barely three weeks to go for the Olympic Games in London, Diane Borg and Rachid Chouhal are finalising preparations in their bid to further improve on their good performances already registered this year.
At the end of June, the two sprinters represented the Malta Amateur Athletics Association at the European Championships in Helsinki.
Sportswoman of the Year Borg participated in the 100m and 200m sprints, running the distances in 12.14sec and 24.68sec respectively.
These were not the best times for Borg this year (having already run 11.95sec for the 100m event and a new national record of 24.15sec in the 200m). However, it must be said that the European Championships were just part of the build-up phase for the ultimate sporting showdown in London, starting July 27.
Chouhal, had mixed results in Helsinki.
Having run close to his seasonal best in the 100m (10.86sec as compared to his 10.83sec run earlier this year), he had to quit a few metres after the start of the 200m event as he was not feeling well.
At the end of the championships, Borg and Chouhal attended a week-long training camp in Guildford on the initiative of the Maltese Olympic Committee and the London 2012 organisers.
They were accompanied by coach Mario Bonello in England.
Training was held at the Spectrum Complex, housing the same track where former Olympic 100m gold medal winner Alan Wells (1980) coaches till this very day.
The training stint was useful as both sprinters also experienced the same kind of damp weather conditions they may find at the Olympic Games heats.
The final tune-up for the Olympics is now being stage in Malta with Borg and Chouhal making the most of the 20/20 Schemes run by Kunsill Malti għall-Isport to get in their best shape ahead of the trip to London.
At the Games, they will participate in what is probably the most contested event, the 100m, where the battle is not only between individuals (with the likes of Bolt, Blake, Powell, Gay, Gatlin on the men’s side and Frazer Pryce, Campbell-Brown, Jetter, Felix on the women’s end) but also between the superpowers of sprinting nations, Jamaica and the US.