Running down the list of habitual winners in local road races there doesn't seem to be any fresh talent coming through.

Worryingly, it is always the same names that keep cropping up: Jonathan Balzan, Charles Cilia, Gerald Grech or Brian Magri, among the men, Carol Walsh, Giselle Camilleri and Carmen Hili dominate among the women.

To see Kevin Zammit come home in second place behind Libya's Haithem Kisheim at the second leg of the Road Running League at Maqluba recently was, therefore, rather refreshing.

Finally, here was someone to challenge the status quo in Maltese road running.

Not that Zammit is in any way a new face... he can already boast two Road Running Leagues, a bronze medal at the GSSE and two triumphs in the Malta Half Marathon.

That, however, was way back in the 90s. Indeed, for a long time it looked as if his potential would never be fulfilled as a serious back problem and a fractured tibia looked like cutting his career short.

"I gave up hope of running in March of 2000," he recalls.

"An athlete has to put in a lot of effort in order to be competitive yet for two years I was getting a lot of pain so I had to call it a day."

Only that his passion for running never really went away.

"I had to take a long rest to recover physically and to mentally accept the situation. It actually took me seven years to start believing that I could restart and have been building up slowly. I must also mention and thank my coach John Walsh and Gerald Grech who is an athlete and also a friend. They both helped me psychologically by the fact that they always believed in me and that I could manage to get competitive again."

Their belief was well founded if the second place at Maqluba is anything to go by.

"I adopted an attacking tactic where I started quick right from the gun," he says of his race.

"I knew that I had to face a tough uphill right at the beginning. After the first hill I found myself in second place and then even led for a while.

"Haithem kept a constant pace until the fifth kilometre. Then, he got a little faster and overtook me as Charles Cilia, who by now was in third place, started to get closer. At one point he even tried to catch me by surprise. But in the end I finished two seconds in front and I was really thankful that the race was over."

It is a result that will keep him in the reckoning.

"I had a bad result in my first race in Żebbuġ, so I knew that I had to do better in Tal-Maqluba to remain in contention for the overall classification," he said.

This hints that Zammit's ambition is still there.

"Up till a few months back I used to just dream about running in races let alone getting back to previous levels," he said.

"The most important thing right now is to cover the best training possible whilst controlling the back condition. If I stick to the training schedule that I have I will certainly reach good levels and even do things that I never did before."

Finally, the future is looking bright once again for Zammit.

Results (Race Two)

Men: 1. H. Kisheim (St Patrick's) 33:18; 2. K. Zammit (Libertas) 33:43; 3. C. Cilia (Mellieħa AC) 33:45.

Women: 1. C. Walsh (Pembroke) 38:08; 2. G. Camilleri (St Patrick's) 38:53; 3. C. Hili (St Patrick's) 39:28.