SOG celebrated 40th anniversary with medals

Last Friday was the final day of the Special Olympics Gibraltar 40th National Games, and the games will be remembered as the most successful yet in their 40-year history with a record involvement in some very memorable competitions. The Games opened on Wednesday evening with some 60 Gibraltar athletes parading into the Lathbury stadium behind the Olympic flag, along with the Isle of Man team and the LETR torch runners, and finished on Friday evening with the swimming competition, at the Lathbury pool followed by the closing ceremony. As usual the opening ceremony included the lighting of the cauldron by athlete Lee Guerreiro, the reading of the Special Olympics Oath, this year by veteran athlete Manolo Spiteri, and the raising of the Special Olympics flag

The athletics competition took place immediately after the opening ceremony and was a demonstration of some remarkable efforts by athletes who had been training for the Games throughout the year. There were some very close races witnessed by the crowd of very vocal supporters and VIPs including Government and Opposition MPs, and His Excellency the Governor Lt. Gen Sir Benjamin Bathurst, who had previously declared the Games open. It culminated in the usual exciting 4 x 100m relay between Team Gibraltar and Team Isle of Man which had looked to be close but the local lads finally proving worthy winners in the final sprint by athlete Francis Avellano.
Event Distance Gold Silver Bronze
1 25m Raiden Alvarez Busto Julian J Baldachino Alexandra Perera
2 25m Zyandra Bossino Jax Alvarez Busto Leila To
3 25m John Bossino Naim Hasisen Graeme Brooking
4 25m Sam Galloway Manolo Spiteri
5 200m Francis Avellano Shane Martinez Nathan Borge
6 200m Francis Mauro Max Desoiza Ryan Viagas
7 50m Frederick Barker Seth Garcia Hannah Colton
8 50m Raiden Alvarez Busto Alexandra Perera John Bossino
9 50m Zyandra Bossino Nicola Wooldridge (IOM) Jax Alvarez Busto
10 100m Francis Avellano Shane Martinez Nathan Borge
11 100m Frederick Barker Seth Garcia Ryan Viagas
12 100m Jessie Dos Santos Gino Francis Charlie Balloqui
13 4 x 100m Relay Team Gibraltar Team Isle of Man
The Games continued on Wednesday with the futsal tournament in the SOG Sports Complex. Unfortunately the Isle of Man team had to pull out of the Games at this stage due to illness. However for the first time this year there was a futsal team from Estepona taking part and also the team from Algeciras who have now become regulars. Neither proved too strong for the local players though and Gibraltar took gold having comfortably beaten Algeciras 5-0 and Estepona 12-0. Algeciras claimed the silver medal and Estepona came third in bronze medal position.

In the afternoon there was the ever-popular bocce competition in the SOG Sports Complex. With the Isle of Man absent the schedule was reorganised into a round-robin doubles tournament between the 5 Gibraltar pairs taking part. In some exciting games the eventual winners were the youngest players present, Frederick Barker and Seth Garcia, who won all 4 of their matches taking gold medal position. Silver medals went to brothers Miguel Rubio and Malcolm Miel who won 3 matches with, another team of brothers, Dorian and Marvin Zammit coming in bronze position winning 2 of their 4 matches. Julian De Las Heras and Dominick Hemmi came 4th winning 1 match and a combined team of Manolo Spiteri, Alfred Celecia and Francis Avellano came in 5th.

The final day of the Games started with the bowling competition at the Kings Bowl Bowling Alley and a singles and doubles tournament. In the doubles tournament Shane Martinez and Frederick Barker won gold in their division beating Dorian Zammit and Miguel Rubio by 498 points to 394. In their respective division Samyr Anakkar and Patrick Slater beat JJ Buttigieg and Jeffrey Migliori by 454 to 432 points. In the singles there were golds for Dorian Zammit, Shane Martinez, Frederick Barker, Jeffrey Migliori, Alfred Celecia, Max DeSoiza and Manolo Spiteri all winning their respective divisions.

On Friday evening the aquatics event took place at the Lathbury pool. After the usual parade of athletes the competition started with 10 fiercely fought races culminating in the 4 x 25m mixed relay between 3 Gibraltar teams. The close result shows the strength of swimmers we have in Gibraltar. The team consisting of Douglas Pitaluga, Dario Vassallo, Glen Wimbleton and JJ Buttigieg finished in 1m:24s to claim gold ahead of Max Desoiza, Seth Garcia, Christopher Joyce and Samuel Santos (1m:30s) with silver and Hannah Colton, Francis Mauro, Sallyann Mauro and Ivan Gomez Mannion in bronze medal position after 1m:33s.