Party time as Muscat claims maiden women's title

Balzan completes hat-trick of wins

Paul Grech

Fatigue and exhaustion are experienced by all runners at the finish line of the gruelling race that is the Malta Challenge Marathon. And, for a few seconds, fatigue and exhaustion was all that Marisa Muscat had to show after coming in first among the women.

Yet, the elation at that achievement bubbled to the surface and within minutes she was bouncing all over Valletta city gate in celebration for her result. Something she kept doing for over half an hour, making her somewhat difficult to nail down for the customary post-race chat.

"I wanted to win," she said in between rushing to congratulate other finishers and continuing her celebratory jumps.

"Once I saw that Carol Walsh wasn't going to take part I realised that the Challenge was there for the taking. To be honest, I simply wouldn't have forgiven myself if I hadn't won... it was too big an opportunity to miss."

This determination to win also meant added pressure on her.

"The tension was hard to cope with," Muscat said. "I was a complete recluse at home between one race and the next, thinking only about getting the rest that I needed while mentally going over each route to plan ahead."

Being her first participation in the Malta Challenge Marathon, Muscat couldn't even count on past experience to take her through.

"Thankfully I have my coach Roger Zammit who prepared me really well. Despite having a lead of one minute going into this final race, I felt that today was going to be the real battle."

Her mentality ensured that there were no slip-ups as she finished almost three minutes ahead of second-placed Caroline Ciappara who also confirmed a second overall placing. Pauline Vella was third, both on the day and overall.

Three was also the magic number for Jonathan Balzan who claimed his third overall success in the Challenge with another exceptional performance.

"I think that it will be very difficult for another Maltese runner to notch up three wins," Balzan opined afterwards.

"Together with my coach Roger Zammit, I had set myself the targets of a personal best and an overall time that was lower than two hours 26 minutes. The first objective I managed to achieve but I missed the second one by eight seconds. Still, overall I think that it was a very good performance."

Even so, Balzan was in a class of his own as second-placed Brian Magri confirmed. "From the start of the Challenge I didn't even think about Jonathan," Magri said.

"I knew that he was going to be way ahead. I was looking to go below two hours 30 minutes and focused on that."

With first and second place effectively settled before the start of the final stage, the biggest cliffhanger was the one for third place overall as Joseph Saliba went in with a lead of a second over Joseph Abdilla.

It wasn't to be enough as, agonisingly for him, Abdilla crossed the finish line six seconds ahead to take third place.

Modest and humble as always, Abdilla barely celebrated as the two genuinely congratulated each other for their performance.

Results (overall)

Men - 1. J. Balzan (St Patrick's) 02:26.08; 2. B. Magri (Pembroke Athleta) 02:31.24; 3. J. Abdilla (Żurrieq Wolves) 02:33.29.

Women - 1. M. Muscat (St Patrick's) 03:05.27; 2. C. Ciappara (Allcomers Aloysians) 03:09.02; 3. Pauline Vella (St Patrick's) 03:16.03.