Malta relay quartet seventh

Jeandre Mallia, Rashid Chouhal, Mario Bonello and Darren Gilford, placed seventh in the 4x100 metres final held last night at the Mediterranean Games Stadium in Almeria.

The Maltese quartet clocked 41.63 seconds which is one second slower than their national record of 40.63 they set in Andorra last month. Italy won the gold medal in 39.13 ahead of France (39.49) and Slovenia (39.57).

Today, Chouhal and Carol Galea will round up Malta's last day commitments in Almeria.

Galea, a silver medallist in the marathon in the 1997 Mediterranean Games, is the best prospect to increase Malta's medal tally of one medal when she takes part in the half-marathon this morning.

Galea is the country's top female long distance runner. She won 12 of the last 14 Malta half marathons. Her fastest time is 1:14.19 set in 1997.

Italy's Rosaria Console (PB 1:09.34) and Olivera Jevtic, of Serbia (PB 1:09.51), are among the front runners in the half marathon with 18 entries.

Chouhal will be competing in the long jump where he will be looking to improve on his national mark of 7.71 metres. The gold medal favourites here are France duo Salim Sdiri (8.22 m) and Kafetien Gomis (8.20m), and Morocco's Tarik Bogtaib (8.21m).