Alma Belle wins titles at Portuguese national puzzle championship

Alma Belle, an 11-year-old competitor from Gibraltar secured multiple titles at the 2026 Portuguese National Puzzle Championship, held in Alcobaça on April 25 and 26.

Having represented Gibraltar across three categories, Children, Pairs and Teams, she won first place and the Best International Performance trophy in both the Children’s and Teams events.

In the Children’s category, she completed a 200-piece puzzle in 12 minutes and 27 seconds to take first place, alongside the Best International Performance award.

In the Pairs competition, Alma teamed up with Irene Rodríguez Merchante from Toledo. The pair won their semi-final in 27 minutes and 33 seconds, completing a 500-piece puzzle, and finished eighth in the final out of 86 pairs with a time of 35 minutes and 11 seconds.

In the Teams category, Alma joined Cristina Roura Suárez, Miguel Moratiel de la Varga and Irene Rodríguez Merchante as part of team “To The Cima”. The team qualified from the semi-final in first position after completing a 1,000-piece puzzle in 45 minutes, and went on to win the Best International Performance trophy in the final with a time of 51 minutes.

The results marked the second consecutive year of participation for Alma at the event, where she competed across five events in total.

The championship was hosted by the Associação Portuguesa de Puzzles.