Buoyed by the excellent results at the 2011 Games of the Small States of Europe, Athletics Malta are hopeful of breaking new ground during this weekend’s European Teams Championships Division Three which will be staged in Iceland.
In Liechtenstein, our track and field athletes finished with one of their best results ever in a GSSE when returning home with 14 medals – four gold, six silver and four bronze. That performance has inevitably raised the spirits among the Maltese federation officials who are hopeful of another strong showing in Reykjavik.
“The Games in Liechtenstein were a huge success for Athletics Malta,” president Anthony Chircop told a news conference yesterday.
“It was a great performance from our athletes who trained hard to reach the GSSE in peak condition. Now focus shifts to the Teams Championships where we are hopeful of achieving more positive results despite stronger competition.
“The standard will be higher than the GSSE but we’re still confident that we can match or even improve on the result ob-tained at Marsa last year, when we placed ninth overall.”
Malta will be competing against 13 other teams apart from the host nation.
These are: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Israel, Cyprus, Georgia, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and the GSSE selection.
The Maltese selection in Reykyavik will unsurprisingly feature the chore of the team that did so well at the LieGames.
Sprinter Diane Borg, winner of two gold medals in Schaan, will spearhead the women’s selection which also includes fellow GSSE medallists Rebecca Camilleri, Lisa Marie Bezzina and the Xuereb twins, Francesca and Martina.
Fourteen-year-old Nicole Gatt, a medallist in Liechtenstein, is not eligible to compete in Iceland as the minimum age for participation is 16 years.
Owen Camilleri, Rashid Chouhal, Andy Grech and Karl Farrugia, winners of a silver medal in the 4x100m in Liechtenstein, will be in the Maltese men’s team that also includes long distance runners Jonathan Balzan and Gerald Grech.
Missing from the selection will be James D’Alfonso and Kevin Moore, both based in Australia, while sprinter Nikolai Portelli is still not 100 per cent fit.
The team in Iceland will be led by Athletics Malta official Maurice Spiteri. He will be accompanied by council members Valerie Farrugia and Pierre Xuereb and coaches Mario Bonello and Mario Micallef.
Contract clause
On the domestic front, Athletics Malta have just received a major boost when the Matthew Micallef St John Athletics Track was certified fit to host international competitions by the IAAF.
“That was a massive boost for our association,” Chircop said.
“Under IAAF rules we can now organise any international compe-tition below the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Series.
“Moreover, the IAAF will also recognise any world or European record that would be established at the Marsa track.
“There are so many people I would like to thank for this but foremost Kunsill Malti għall-iSport chairman Bernard Vassallo.
“His organisation was of great assistance as to undergo the required upgrades at Marsa, we had to spend nearly €80,000.”
Chircop also said that in the past few months, Athletics Malta was invited by the Parliamentary Secretary for Sport to play a role in the Marsa Sports Complex deve-lopment project, undertaken by the government.
Part of the project, Chircop added, entailed the setting up of a High Performance Training and Research Centre at Marsa. To this end, the association had to team up with a private investor who would cover the cost to upgrade the Marsa stadium while Athletics Malta would have to pay 50 per cent of the costs to maintain and redevelop the facilities.
“Our response was that we were prepared to sub-lease to the would-be investor part of the warm-up area which would be in line with the ‘public-private partnership’ initiative which the government is promoting,” Chircop said.
“However, this policy con-tradicts a standard clause in the agreement that associations managing a government-owned facility have in their contract, prohibiting them from entering into some form of partnership with private entities.
“Now, we’re urging the autho-rities to reconsider their decision against rescinding this condition as it’s hampering efforts to further develop our sport.”
The squad
(Women): C. Attard, L. Bezzina, D. Borg, G. Camilleri, M. Camilleri, R. Camilleri, A. Chouhal, C. Gambin, A. Pace, C. Pace, M. Xuereb, F. Xuereb.
(Men): J. Balzan, J. Borg, N. Brimmer, O. Camilleri S. Camilleri, C.L. Chet-cuti, R. Chouhal, M. Croker, K. Farrugia, K. Galea, A. Grech, E. Grech, G. Grech, I.P. Grech, M. Herrera, M. Mifsud.