Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club Eurosport Fleur-de-Lys Road Race attracts record attendance

By Maria Vella Galea

A record participation of over 320 athletes took part in Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club final commitment for the 2015 season – the Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club Eurosport Fleur-de-Lys Road Race where strong improvements by returning athletes reigned supreme.

Organised by Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club and in collaboration with the Birkirkara Local Council, the Kumitat Amministrattiv Fleur-de-Lys and held under the auspices of the Malta Amateur Athletic Association this race ends a busy season for the Club which this year celebrated 40 years in sport.
 
10k Race
Mellieha AC athletes Andrew Grech and Margaret Seguna clinched first place on the 10k Race winners’ podium.
 
Mellieha AC athlete Andrew Grech continued to show his dominance by retaining his title for the third consecutive year.   Second was Birkirkara St. Joseph SC athlete Keith Galea who was followed closely by fellow team mate Steve Chetcuti. Although Chetcuti kept hot on Galea’s heels, it was a final strong and determined sprint from Galea which saw him pip Chetcuti to second place by nine seconds.  Chetcuti’s performance has grown stronger resulting in an almost two-minute improvement over last year’s time.
 
Margaret Seguna has also registered strong improvements, when she crossed the finish line in 40 minutes 21 seconds, an improvement of over a minute on the same course last year, where she finished in fourth place. Seguna led the way in the Females’ category to win comfortably over Laura Heikkila who claimed second place in a time of 42 minutes 47 seconds. Third place was taken by Graziella Formosa who came in 10 seconds after Heikkila.
 
5k Race
 There were no surprises in the Males’ category when Mark Herrera (Athleta Pembroke) sprinted to retain his title following a closely fought battle with Charlton Debono (Athletix AC). Third place was young Birkirkara St. Joseph athlete Shaun Galea, who has been registering good results especially in Triathlon. Galea claimed third place in a time of 16 minutes 42 seconds, two minutes better than last year.
 
The Females’ 5k podium was graced with some new faces from last year with Lisa Marie Bezzina (Athleta Pembroke), Angele Satariano (AS Libertas) and Francesca Arrigo (Ladies Running Club) claiming the top three places.
 
A presentation ceremony was held immediately after. Prizes were also awarded to winners in the various age group categories.  Present for the awards were Julian Holland and Antoine Attard representing the Solidarjeta bl-Isport Campaign of the Malta Community Chest Fund for which over €900 were raised.