Gail Rizzo and Rachel Sullivan were undoubtedly Neptunes’ outstanding swimmers in 1997, a year during which they also left their mark on the national level.    

For a mouth-watering start we had the 1996 Swimmer of the Year, Gail, being voted Sportswoman of the Year.    
 

Gail Rizzo receives the Sportswoman of the Year award from Malta Olympic President, Judge Lino Farrugia Sacco

Gail and Rachel were Malta’s spearheads, and as usual these Neptunes swimmers lived up to their reputation with Rachel winning a silver medal in the 200 metres butterfly and Gail obtaining a bronze medal in the 400 metres individual medley.   
 
Rachel Sullivan was later voted as the 1997 swimmer of the year in the female category, an honour now very familiar with Neptunes’ swimmers.    

Earlier in the year our club had a number of swimmers in the Malta team which took part in a warm-up international meeting in Morocco.    

The medals’ haul for Malta was a handsome 20 with Gail Rizzo landing seven of the nine gold medals amassed by the Maltese team. No wonder that Gail was hailed as the star of the tournament after winning all her events.    

After taking part in an international age-group swimming meet in Bad-Bergzabern in Germany, and obtaining encouraging results, Neptunes’ swimmers together with colleagues from other clubs, went on to participate in an Easter international meet in Malta where Gail Rizzo was again the top swimmer as she registered times very close to her best. Rachel Sullivan and Pippa Agius also did well.    
 

Rachel Sullivan

Meanwhile, John Buttigieg, who joined the Neptunes squad from Sliema during the year, also maintained expected progress in his events.     Club swimmers were also among 37 teams taking part in the Guildford Swimming Meet in May.     Angela Galea recorded a personal best in the 100 metres butterfly with Julian Degabriele doing likewise in the same event for the males. Young Neil Agius recorded an encouraging time in the 100 metres free style.     The Guildford event turned out to disappointment for young Angela Galea, who, despite obtaining a faster time than that of a swimmer already selected for Iceland, was omitted from the national squad.

Needless to say,  our swimmers were in the forefront during the 1997 national championships held in May over four days.   
 
Gail topped the list when she bettered her 200 metres back stroke record by almost three seconds after which she went on to shave the 200 metres Individual Medley mark on the first day.    

Another Neptunes girl who qualified for Iceland, 14-year-old Rachel Sullivan, set a new national and age-group record with Angela Galea causing the surprise of the championships when she bettered the time registered by Mandy Abela, a qualifier for Iceland, but unfortunately for her, the two allotted places for the Small Nations’ event had already been filled up by the closing date.    

In the boys’ events Neptunes had three winners on the opening day, John Buttigieg, Neil Agius and Alex Cutajar.    

The biggest cheers of the second day were reserved for Pippa Agius, the 13-year-old rising Neptunes starlet who managed to obtain the qualifying time for the Iceland Games in the 100 metres breast stroke, a tremendous achievement considering the tension this young swimmer had to endure.    

It was later confirmed that Pippa was to be included in the Malta team for the Iceland Games.    
Rachel Sullivan was again in fine form, breaking the age-group record in the 100 metres butterfly while Angela Galea did very well in the same event.    

The third and final day was a triumph for John Buttigieg who obtained the qualifying time in the 200 metres butterfly to clinch a place in the Malta team for Iceland.    
 

The 16-year-old Neptunes lad was the only other male swimmer together with John J. Tabone in the Malta team, which included no fewer than eight girls. Captain Gail Rizzo was again outstanding on the third day in terms of national records. Her latest mark was in the 50 metres free-style.     Rachel Sullivan maintained her record-breaking sequence in the age-group category when clocking a new time in the 50 metres butterly.     A welcome insertion in the record books was that of 16-year-old Malcolm Azzopardi, a Neptunes waterpolo player. He clipped off a fraction of a second from the 50 metres free style, age-group mark. Julian Degabriele was another Neptunes swimmer who won his event

Christian Gialanze

It was encouraging to see that besides the established Neptunes swimmers, there were also John Paris, Niki Lanzon and Christian Gialanze, the last-mentioned swimmer not having been in full trim for some time.    

Veterans Roberta Stellini and Angelita Briffa, also made token appearances for our club. The contribution of all swimmers helped Neptunes win the competition hands down against opposition from other clubs.    

The top event of 1997 was the Games for the Small States of Europe held in Iceland in May/June.    

There was an anti-climax as far as results and medals won were concerned. This was probably due to an anticipated peaking of Malta’s swimmers which came about two weeks prior to the Games, when the national championships were held.    

No doubt, Rumanian Professor Mikhail Gothe did excellent work as national coach, managing to get the best out of his swimmers when they set a multitude of records during the period they were under his charge.    

One must also mention the valid contribution given by the Neptunes coach from Latvia, Ella Yaranova, who helped in getting the best out of our swimmers.    

The Iceland Games may also have been hard for the Maltese due to the climatic conditions where temperatures were lower than expected. Notwithstanding this adversity, there were two medals won by the Maltese, incidentally, both by Neptunes swimmers, Rachel Sullivan and Gail Rizzo.