Galea still in record-breaking groove

Angela Galea's form in her early build-up for next summer's GSSE, to be held in Malta, is very impressive. Such a condition indicates that she could well repeat and improve on last year's successes.

After bettering her own national mark in the 200m butterfly when clocking 2:21.50 on Friday, the 19-year-old swimmer yesterday clipped almost a second off her previous time of 1:04.55 in the 100m butterfly. She registered 1:03.62 in the heats to qualify for the final in the Luxembourg Euro-Meet.

In the afternoon final Galea clocked 1:04.45 to finish fifth overall. That time still eclipsed her previous national record. In the shorter one-lap event over 50 metres butterfly on Saturday, Malta's top swimmer twice covered the distance in 29.92, which was six hundredths of a second outside her national mark.

To confirm that she is in an excellent frame despite a heavy programme of racing, on Saturday Galea clipped 2.35 seconds off her previous personal best in the 200 metres individual medley after stopping the watches on 2:32.45.

Galea, winner of a bronze medal in the 100m butterfly in the last edition of the GSSE in San Marino, finished second to triathlete Maria Mifsud Bonnici in the Sportivi Nazzjonali contest on Saturday.

The girl is benefitting from these overseas commitments. Her time in the 100m is gradually getting closer to excellence by continental standards. It would have earned her a gold medal at the last GSSE.

Contacted yesterday, Dr Michael Gialanze, chairman of the ASA Swimming Board, said that Galea has to compete more often in the international circuit. "Such improvement is the result of hard work and exposure in overseas competitions.

"Next target for her should be in Sindelfingen, Germany at the end of February. After that we hope she competes in Munich, and that will be followed by the Easter Meet in Malta in April.

"The overseas competitive build-up should be concluded in a high-level meet in Greece in May. We hope everything will go as planned so that the girl would taper in time for the Malta GSSE early in June.

"Galea, together with Maltese-Australian breast-stroker, Ashley Borg, who will hopefully represent Malta in the GSSE, should boost our chances of hitting some highs in June's Games," Gialanze said.