Darren Gilford of Malta (© Wally Galea)
Contrary to the rest of the country, Darren Gilford and Martina Xuereb will have something other than the General Election on their mind this weekend as the two will be competing in the 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships, Valencia, Spain (7-9 March).
As always the lack of indoor facilities in Malta is a hindrance to the athletes, particularly for Xuereb who will be competing in the 400m. “It is the quite a challenge,” she admitted.
So far, Xuereb’s only experience of running indoors came earlier this year during a trip to Sheffield.
“In training I’m using mainly the first line so as to get more of a feel,” she explained. “However, other than that I’ll have to rely on what I learned in Sheffield.”
Making matters worse is a tight schedule that will see the Maltese duo arrive in Valencia in the evening before they’re due to compete leaving them with little time for acclimatization.
Given the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that she isn’t focussing on a particular time. “I can’t really aim for any particular result because I have so little experience meaning that I can hardly evaluate where I stand. All I can do is promise to give it my utmost to obtain the best result possible.”
Xuereb will also have to cope without having her twin sister Francesca with her even though she insists that this won’t be a problem. “Obviously it would be better to have her with me as it is always easier when you have someone you know so well alongside you. However, it won’t be a problem because how I run doesn’t depend on having Francesca with me.”
The situation as far as Darren Gilford is concerned is significantly better seeing that he already has plenty of indoor experience. “This won’t be the first time I’ll be running indoors in a major championship so I know what to expect.”
Already this year he has taken part in the Birmingham Indoor Championships where he ran a time of 7.03 seconds, a decent enough result even though not what he expected. “I wanted a better result even though I had planned to take in some additional competitions.”
Nevertheless, he is confident. “I know how I’m feeling, what I’m going to find and how to prepare.”
“I want to go for a time of 6.90 seconds. If I have a good start and finish I feel that I can still go down to 6.80 seconds.”
Paul Grech for the IAAF
