Matthew Zammit... new 50m freestyle record.

Sprinter Matthew Zammit yesterday became the first Maltese swimmer to go under the 23-second mark in 50m freestyle at the National Championships currently underway at the National Pool, Tal-Qroqq.

Zammit, swimming in the relay, touched the wall in 22.82 seconds in the opening leg of the 4x50 metres race. His impressive time was 0.22 seconds faster than the previous best of 23.04 seconds set by Andrew Chetcuti at an international meeting in Luxembourg in January.

Incidentally, Zammit had already equalled Chetcuti’s previous best time during the 50 metres freestyle sprint.

The new record guarantees Zammit an automatic berth in the Maltese team for next year’s Games of the Small States of Europe as his time dipped below the minimum qualifying standard (MQS) of 23.17 seconds set by the Maltese Olympic Committee ahead of the trip to San Marino.

At the 2017 GSSE, Zammit will be joined by Chetcuti, Michael Umnov, Jeremy Bugeja and Matthew Galea who punched their ticket to San Marino when completing the 4x200 metres freestyle relay in seven minutes 46.50 seconds.

Their joint efforts produced a result that was almost five seconds quicker than the MQS set by the MOC.

In the same relay event, Chetcuti went on to clock a new 200 metres freestyle record when completing his leg in 1:53.30. He bettered his own previous best of 1:55.56 which was set in Georgia, US, last month.

Around 225 swimmers, representing nine different clubs, are competing in the three-day end-of-season meeting. The championships come to a close today with the final two sessions, starting at 9am and 5pm.