MOC to review Centre of Excellence schemes - Cutajar

Mark Cutajar, the MOC Director of Sport, yesterday told reporters that the Maltese Olympic Committee is planning to review its Centre of Excellence schemes following Team Malta's moderate showing in last week's Cyprus GSSE.

Team Malta returned home on Sunday from Nicosia with a modest tally of 21 medals - three gold, five silver and 13 bronze. This was the lowest number of medals won by the Maltese in a single edition since Liechtenstein 1999.

Cutajar had only been in the job for a few months before the Games. He admitted that he had hoped for better results, however, given the circumstances it was difficult for Team Malta to achieve that.

"Prior to the Games, my prediction was that we would win 21 medals. I wished we could have done better but that's the best we could have done in my opinion," Cutajar said.

"We had valid athletes troubled by injuries and some of those who did make the trip were not 100 per cent fit. We also had Ryan Gambin, Madeleine Scerri and Godfrey Gauci dropping out of the team and the injury to Marko Matijevic did not help matters either.

"There was also the controversy surrounding our table tennis team. So, taking everything into consideration I honestly don't think we could have fared better than this."

Cutajar said that Cyprus 2009 was a learning experience and made him realise that there were some aspects in the technical set-up that needed to be restructured.

"The Centre of Excellence is one area we are going to look into," Cutajar said.

"It was very disappointing for us to notice that none of those who benefited from the Gold Scheme had actually won a gold medal in Cyprus. For me, that is unacceptable.

"In the coming weeks, we will conduct a general review of the whole set-up and make sure that the money invested in these schemes is not going down the drain."

Cutajar added that in track and field the MOC was quite satisfied with the men's sprint team, winners of three medals on the final day. However, he had expected something better from their women counterparts.

"The build-up of the women's sprinters was not ideal really because of a series of injuries. However, we still expected faster times," Cutajar said.

"Unfortunately, Lara Scerri suffered an injury and Celine Pace had to withdraw midway through the Games. I think, had they been fully fit we could have finished in the top three in the relay."

Cutajar said that shooting and sailing were the success stories in Cyprus while in basketball they experienced mixed fortunes.

"The women's team should be commended for their effort and attitude, both on and off court," the MOC Director said.

"The girls fostered a great team spirit, especially during those matches where some would have lost hope and gave up. Indeed, the gold medal was a fitting reward for this team and their coach.

"The men's team had key players Godfrey Gauci and Sam Deguara out of the equation and this made it difficult for them."

Cutajar said that Malta's participation in beach volley could be described as positive from many an aspect. Although Paul Vella and Daniel Gauci failed to win any matches, they still did enough to leave a good impression in their first ever showing in the GSSE.

In tennis and gymnastics, the Director of Sport said that Malta had some exciting talent emerging at this level. But discussions will be held to analyse what went wrong with the mountain bike team who failed to finish the race in Macarias. The same goes for swimming.

"I believe that we must conduct a serious analysis to see what went wrong in certain sport in Cyprus. In swimming, particularly, we have to be more competitive. This is a sport where the highest number of medals is at stake," Cutajar said.

Regarding judo, Cutajar said there was, perhaps, too much pressure on gold medal favourite Marcon Bezzina.

"The burden of expectation to defend her title weighed heavily on Bezzina's shoulders," Cutajar said.

"Unfortunately, she had an off day and ended up relinquishing her title. However, judo's general showing was not up to the task, in my opinion. I think that some of ours did not show the right attitude in competition and that showed in the end result."

Looking ahead, Cutajar was clear at the next MOC moves.

"Once the Mediterranean Games are over, we will sit down and make sure that next time we'll do our homework differently," he said.

"There were a lot of positives to derive from these Games. So, we must make sure that we do all we can not to waste our talent and reach the 2011 Games in a better shape."