Tennis player Francesca Curmi and swimmer Sasha Gatt were presented with their respective Atlas Youth Athlete of the Month awards, following their international sporting commitments.

Nineteen-year-old Francesca Curmi had been declared the winner of the Atlas Youth Athlete of the Month for the month of February. This was mainly due to her stellar performance during the ITF Tournament held in Monastir, Tunisia, when, against all odds and facing better seeded opponents, she achieved six straight victories to reach the final played on Sunday 28th February. Francesca became the first ever Maltese tennis player to reach the final of a ‘Futures’ event. Unfortunately, she was beaten by her Polish opponent in the final.

Sixteen-year-old Sasha Gatt was chosen as the winner of the June award following her outstanding results in the 400m freestyle, where she stopped the clock at 4:18.58, over five seconds faster than the 4:23.33 mark she established in February. The very next day, Gatt broke her own national record in the 800m freestyle with a time of 8:52.22. She had previously set that record in March at 8:58.88, as the opening split of what was also a national record-breaking time in the 1500m. Both of those national records are also Maltese age group records. Recently, she was the youngest athlete to form part of the Maltese contingent participating in the Olympic Games held in Tokyo last July.

The trophies for the Atlas Youth Athlete of the Month together with the sports apparel voucher were presented to both Francesca Curmi and Sasha Gatt by Matthew von Brockdorff, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Atlas Insurance. The MSJA was represented by President Sandro Micallef, General Secretary Lorraine Cunningham and Administrator Stephen Azzopardi for this presentation.

This award is a joint initiative of the Malta Sports Journalists Association and Atlas Insurance.