Meet The Maltese Teenager Who Just Broke Her 13th National Record
Amy Micallef is still 19 years old and has just finished her first year at University, but she’s been swimming a whole decade now. And those 10 years were as productive as they get; last night, Amy went and broke her 13th national record. Yep, she’s that good.
The young Neptunes swimmer’s stellar performance on Thursday evening was part of the 2017 National Championships, which will be running until this Sunday. Amy will be competing in freestyle relays, medleys and breaststroke races over the next couple of years, and she’s already off to a great start. Yesterday saw her improve on her own 50 metre breaststroke national record by just 0.3 seconds.
Amy’s first awards date all the way back to 2009, when she won the Aquatic Sports Association of Malta’s Swimming Leagues Cadets awards for the Female Category. She won the same award for the next two consecutive years, along with a host of others. She’s the current Long Course National Record Holder in all three breaststroke events, and yes; most of the time, she’s just out there breaking her own records.
Back in 2010, a then-12-year-old Amy had set a new record for the 100 metres event which had previously been undisputed for 14 whole years. And she didn’t just set a new record by a tiny margin either; she was nearly three whole seconds faster, which is an age and a half as far as records as concerned. That year, she had also set a new national record during the 50 metre race.
Amy Micallef back in 2010, with her coach Gail Rizzo
This weekend’s races (and hopefully record-breaking) mark Amy’s last competition of the season in Malta, but that’s not the last of 2017 for the young swimmer. She’ll be ending her year in style, at the World Champions in Budapest later this month. “This will be my second time racing in the World Championships and I will be racing against Olympic medalist and world record holders!” Amy told Lovin Malta. Amy’s race will actually be shown on Eurosport, and more information can be found on her page.
Amy is particularly looking forward to this Saturday’s 100 metre breaststroke, and that’s only to break even more records. She’s been the National Event Champion in this race for five years in a row since 2012, and in her owns, she’s looking forward to another.
Amy’s coach, Andrew Colbourn, uploaded a video of her record-breaking swim from yesterday at Tal Qroqq’s National Pool Complex, no doubt very proud of her performance. “I’d have to say that I’ve probably been so successful this year thanks to him,” Amy said of her coach. “We’ve been training on a new style which focuses more on race-specific swimming sets. I now train much shorter distances, focusing more on sprinting and keeping good technique through the session. This has turned out to be better than long sessions with lots of milage because those don’t really make that much sense for a sprint swimmer.”
The Neptunes Swimming and Waterpolo Club also posted a congratulatory post after the first successful day at the National Swimming Championships, praising the very positive results of all their swimmers and medal winners, including of course their very own Amy.
“I hope to keep swimming for as long as I can,” Amy concluded. “I’d love to eventually make it to a semifinal of something like the Olympics… or even better!” Well, if Amy’s last 11 years are anything to go by, she’s definitely on the right track. Here’s wishing her the very best!
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