MAAA sends 12-strong contingent to Olomouc

With the athletics season virtually over and with local sport concerned mostly with aquatic activities for much of the past two months, it may surprise some to learn that a group of youngsters have been busy throughout the summer getting ready to compete on the track and field away from our shores.

The Malta Amateur Athletics Association (MAAA) has, for the past decade, given emerging athletes the opportunity to test their performance against other youngsters from across the continent in a competition of international stature.

This year is no exception. After taking part in a competition in Wales last year, Athletics Malta, with the invaluable assistance of the Kunsill Malti għall-iSport (KMS), have sent a group of up-and-coming athletes to the European Kids Athletics Games, now in their fifth edition.

Starting today in Olomouc, these Games attract as much as 700 youngsters aged 11 to 15, hailing mainly from central Europe although some contingents travel all the way from Scandinavia, the Baltics and the British Isles.

Spread over two days the programme includes select disciplines and distances better suited to the age of the participants with, for example, a 60m sprint instead of a 100m, 150m in lieu of the 200m and 300m preferred to the 400m distance.

Over the years, many of the athletes now representing Malta at senior level have taken part in this programme and the experience has been beneficial. In this particular competition Malta has definitely left its mark with Martina Xuereb remaining in the record books thanks to her performance of 40.02 seconds in the 300m in the first edition of the European Kids Athletics Games in 2006.

On that occasion, Xuereb was also honoured with the best technical performance award.

The year 2006 also saw our 15-year-olds, a quartet composed of Martina and her sister Francesca, Dorianne Micallef and Rebecca Sare, establishing a Games record for the 4x60m relay in a time of 30.47 seconds.

This year’s Athletics Malta contingent is made up of four 13 year-olds, six a year older and another two born in 1995, a total of six boys and six girls. The selected athletes have made a name for themselves with their performances this year, especially Eric Borg Saywell and Nicole Gatt who broke quite a few national records in the younger, cadet category.

The other cadets are Samwel Zammit and Gabriella Grima. In the youth category, Athletics Malta are represented by Kurt Dalli, Kevin Debono, Bradley Mifsud, Benji Fenech Salerno, Clarissa Cremona, Sarah D’Alessandro, Rachel Fitz and Thalia Massa.

Valerie Farrugia, MAAA council member, and Joseph Farrugia, a qualified Area Technical Official of the international athletics body and current president of Savio Athletic Club, are heading the Maltese contingent in Olomouc.