2025 Malta Swimming Championships
- June 27-30, 2025
- Cospicua, Malta
- Long Course Meters (50 meters), Prelims/Finals
Five Maltese Records fell last weekend at the country’s 2025 National Championships, even without the country’s star swimmer Sasha Gatt, who was racing at the European U23 Championships. The results are another example of the halo effect that a breakout swimmer from a lesser swimming nation can provide, much like is happening in places like Romania with David Popovici.
Meet Results links:
On the women’s side, Mya Azzopardi set three Maltese National Records in two different events at the meet. In the 100 free, she swam 57.75 on a 400 free relay leadoff for Neptunes WPSC, one of a handful of clubs in the nation of just-over half a million citizens (Gatt swims for Sliema, one of the country’s other three leading clubs along with Aquahub).
Azzopardi, 23, had a previous lifetime best of 58.00 from a meet in California in 2024 where she swims for San Jose State University. That came before going 57.77-57.75-57.73 here.
She also won the 50 free (27.02), 200 free (2:08.50) and was the fastest swimmer in the heats of the 100 backstroke (1:06.62) before scratching finals. The 50 free and 100 back were best times, as was her 1:06.26 leading off a 400 medley relay for Neptune.
On the men’s side, Kyle Micallef swam a 22.79 in the 50 fly to shave one-hundredth of a second off his old mark set last year. Micallef was raised in Melbourne, Australia and also trains in the United States. There, he was the 2024 NCAA Division II Champion in the 50 free for Florida Southern University before transferring for a graduate season at the University of Alabama.
He joined Gatt as one of two swimmers representing Malta at the 2024 Olympic Games among an Olympic roster of just five total athletes for the country in Paris.
Micallef also won the 50 fly (25.16), 100 free (52.49), and 50 back (27.53) at the Maltese Championships, while his younger sister Nirvana Micallef won the 200 fly in 2:29.97.
The men’s 200 butterfly record also fell to Nathan Cachia from Sliema ASC. The teenager swam 2:04.60 to break the old record of 2:04.73 that was set in 2017 by Michael Umnov.
This national championship comes a week after the country’s main international championship, the Games of the Small States of Europe, where they won 2 golds among 6 medals.
Other Top Performers
- Sasha Gatt‘s brother Thomas Gatt won both the 200 freestyle (1:57.50) and 400 freestyle (4:11.44).
- A pair of Maltese age group records fell in the men’s 400 IM. Luke Axisa from Glide Aquatics broke the 14-15 record in 4:51.31, while Matthew Satariano from Sliema broke the 16-17 record with a 4:40.64. Axisa took six seconds off the prior standard set in 2019, while Satariano took a more modest second-and-a-half off his own record from three weeks earlier (though 9.3 seconds overall this year).
The meet was well-attended by international clubs: Derby Excel Swimming Club in England and Cape Town Aquatics in South Africa both sent rosters.
- Georgina Pryor from Derby Excel won four sprint events on the women’s side: the 50 free (26.60), 100 free (57.16), 50 fly (27.04), and 100 fly (1:02.48).
22.79 in the 50 free, not fly