First medals to be won today in athletics and cycling

The first medals of the 11th Games of the Small States of Europe will be awarded today with the start of competitive action in various arenas here in Andorra.

The first medal of the day will be won in cycling when the time-trial race will be held over the Placa Prince Benlloch circuit in the city centre. Riders will cover four laps of the 4.7km circuit with the one clocking the fastest time climbing to the highest step on the podium to collect his gold medal.

In 2001, Malta won its only gold medal in cycling.

On that occasion David Millar, now serving a doping suspension, ran away with the honours in San Marino. This time, the Maltese are pinning their hopes of success on the experienced Jack Schiavone. He placed fourth in San Marino.

Today, Maltese-Australian cyclist David Treacy is also expected to rank among the protagonists of the time-trial.

There are also great expectations for today's opening programme in track and field with Malta's best chances of medal success lying in the men's and women's 100m sprints and possibly the longer 5,000m race.

Darren Gilford will be bidding for a second podium finish in the competition after placing third in Malta two years ago.

Our other representative in the dash is Jeandre Mallia.

The women's crown in the major sprint will also be contested today with Charlene Attard and Therese Mallia running for Malta.

Carol Galea's participation in the 5,000m race was slightly in doubt though. Yesterday, she was carrying an injury.

Two years ago, Galea had to pull out of the 5,000m race as she was hit with a stress fracture in her foot.

In the pool, Angela Galea will be attempting to win her third consecutive GSSE medal when she competes in the 200m butterfly final.

Pasanski's all-clear

Meanwhile, the Malta Olympic Committee and Tennis Federation officials yesterday were successful in defending their right to have Boris Pasanski in the tennis squad despite a protest lodged by Iceland.

Iceland had contended that Pasanski was not eligible to play for Malta as he had already represented Serbia and Montenegro in the Davis Cup.

The GSSE board did not uphold Iceland's protest. Pasanski's position was in accordance with to the 'foreigners' rules and he was given the all-clear to play.

Pasanski, 21, received a bye to the second round. Daniel Ceros faces an opponent from Iceland in the opening men's singles round.

The women's singles will also start today. Lisa Camenzuli starts with a bye but Stephanie Pace plays against a Monaco opponent.

Today, Santino Coppa's basketball team start their women's title defence with a tough opener against 2003 bronze medallists Luxembourg.

There are only four teams in the round-robin tournament after Cyprus opted out of the competition last week.

A win today will secure a place on the podium in the final reckoning.

In shooting, the qualifying rounds from the Trap competition will be held during the day with Joe Attard and Frans Pace targeting a place in tomorrow's finals.

The first matches from the men's team table tennis competition will also be played.

Our team, composed of Simon Gerada and Andrzej Makowski, were pitted in the same half of the draw with Cyprus, Iceland and Monaco.

In action today

Athletics: Women's 100m - C. Attard, T. Mallia. Men's 100m - D. Gilford, J. Mallia. Women's 400m - L. Scerri, M. Xuereb. Men's 400m - K. Farrugia, N. Portelli. Women's 800m - L. Bezzina. Men's 800m - M. Herrera. Women's 5,000m - C. Galea. Shot - A. Chouhal.

Basketball: (Women) Malta vs Luxembourg.

Cycling: Time Trial - J. Schiavone, D. Treacy.

Judo: V. Licari (U-63kg), M. Kor-chilava (U-73kg), M. Bezzina (U-57kg), R. Micallef (U-66kg), Y. Ulanov (U-81), M. Zahra (Over 100), L. Ciantar (U-52kg).

Shooting: Trap - J. Attard, F. Pace.

Swimming: 200m 'fly - A. Galea; 200m free - R. Callus, D. Mangion.

Table Tennis: Men's team event - S. Gerada; A. Makowski.

Tennis: Men's singles - B. Pasanski, D. Ceros. Women's singles - L. Camenzuli, S. Pace.