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.
A statement from Special Olympics Gibraltar follows below:
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.
