SPECIAL OLYMPICS GIBRALTAR 38th NATIONAL GAMES 2023 DAY 3 – BOWLING AND SWIMMING

Last Friday was the final day of the Special Olympics Gibraltar 38th National Games and the games finished with great excitement at the GSLA pool with the swimming competition followed by the usual closing ceremony. Athletes from Special Olympics Gibraltar (SOG) competed against Special Olympics Isle of Man with 10 thrilling races culminating in the 4 x 25m relay where two SOG teams competed against one from the Isle of Man. SOG1 consisting of Glen Wimbleton, Adam Stewart, Sallyann Mauro and JJ Buttigieg came in comfortably in first place in 1 m 35s, but in a thrilling race for second position, which had the crowd on their feet, SOG2 just pipped Team Isle of Man to the post by less than a second, both coming in at 1m 49s.

The Games were then officially closed by Sir Joe Bossano who gave the closing speech before the Olympic flag was lowered by the athletes and the Olympic flame extinguished for another year.

Earlier in the day the bowling competition took place at the Kings Bowl Bowling Alley. This included a singles event, doubles event and team event. In the singles event SOG athletes Marvin Zammit, Lucy Stewart and JJ Buttigieg brought home the gold medals whilst in the doubles Shane Martinez and Jan Lopez, and Patrick Slater and Lucy Stewart beat their Isle of Man opponents to win gold medals, whilst Samyr Anakkar and Adam Stewart, and Glen Wimbleton and JJ Buttigieg beat SOG or mixed opposition to claim golds. In the team event the dominance of SOG shone through beating their Isle of Man opponents by 1,276 points to 849.

Following the closing ceremony the athletes and families retired to the Retreat Centre where over 100 of them celebrated the success of the Games with a party and barbecue. It was agreed by all that these games were a huge success and represented a solid return to business after the disruption of the covid years.

AQUATIC RESULTS

Event Race Gold Silver Bronze
1 25m Free Alexander McLelland Natasha Keig Lucy Stewart
2 25m Free Max Desoiza Glen Wimbleton Sallyann Mauro
3 25m Free Charlie Balloqui Malcolm Miel Virginia Wink
4 50m Free JJ Buttigieg Adam Stewart Francis Mauro
5 50m Free Chloe Rollitt Dylan Butler Sallyann Mauro
6 25m Breast Alexander McLelland Max Desoiza Natasha Keig
7 50m Breast Francis Mauro JJ Buttigieg Adam Stewart
8 25m Back Glen Wimbleton Dylan Butler Chloe Rollitt
9 50m Back JJ Buttigieg Adam Stewart Stephen Balban
10 4 x 25m Relay Adam Stewart,
Glen Wimbleton,
Sallyann Mauro,
Charlie Balloqui Francis Mauro,
Max Desoiza,
Lucy Stewart,
Stephen Balban Dylan Butler,
Chloe Rollitt,
Natasha Keig,
Kanyeba Lubilanji

BOWLING RESULTS

Event Gold Silver Bronze
1 Singles Marvin Zammit Dorian Zammit Samyr Anakkar
2 Singles Lucy Stewart Miguel Rubio
3 Singles JJ Buttigieg Glen Wimbleton
4 Doubles Shane Martinez
Jan Lopez Karl Monaghan
Tom Read
5 Doubles Patrick Slater
Lucy Stewart Lawrence Dyer
Shaun Anderson
6 Doubles Samyr Anakkar
Adam Stewart Marvin Zammit
Miguel Rubio
7 Doubles Glen Wimbleton
JJ Buttigieg Dorian Zammit
Dylan Butler
8 Team Team SOG Team IOM