Excellent start by Maltese sailors

Malta, fielding a strong team of young sailors, made a fine start in the third Euromed Malta Championships which started yesterday at St Paul's Bay.

Matthew Fleri Soler is leading the Optimist Class, made up of 32 sailors, with Benjamin Borg and Rebecka Harding of Sweden in second and third places respectively.

Fleri Soler was in dominant form yesterday winning the first two races with the other going to Borg. Karl Cremona, 11, also had a fine outing placing third in race three.

This year's championships also include two Laser classes. These Olympic categories brought 14 entrants, all from Malta, many well established ones too.

In the Laser Standard class, John Tabone registered generally slightly better times than Adrian Gauci Borda on day one by finishing in first place twice against Gauci Borda's one victory and two second placings. The overall positions therefore saw Tabone hanging on to the first place with Gauci Borda and Neil Borg following closely.

In the Laser Radial class, it was Peter Valentino who came out with three first placings in the three races and therefore finished ahead of Paul Debono and Alfred Fenech at the end of the day since they both had a number of good second and third placings in the first three races.

The championships continue today and come to a close on Saturday.