A group of Maltese archers, accompanied by national coach John Schembri, will fly to San Marino this month for the fifth European small nations tournament.

The local association, with the support and direct assistance from the Malta Olympic Committee, has been preparing arduously for this event and besides an intensive outdoor competitions' calendar, which ran for the past six months, archers also had a rigorous training programme at Marsa.

The tournament has been held bi-annually since 1996 when the first event took place in Cyprus. Malta has participated in all editions and achieved commendable results.

In 1998 the tournament was staged in San Marino. Malta organised the 2000 edition and Luxembourg in 2002.

Competition is spread over three days. It is open to both Recurve and Compound divisions with events for female and male categories staged for singles and teams.

The Malta contingent is formed of five previous medal winners.

Maria Formosa won gold in Recurve in Cyprus and Philip Camilleri was a member of the Compound team that claimed silver in 2002. Dion Buhagiar won Compound team gold in San Marino and bronze in the same category in Malta two years later.

Joe Ellul Sullivan won three medals in such events - two golds in San Marino, one for the individual and the other for the team event in Compound, and four years later he took silver in team Compound.

John Pace made his first appearance in 1998 and has been a medal winner in all tournaments since then. During his first experience in San Marino, Pace netted gold in the team event and silver in the individual Compound category.

When the tournament was held in Malta, Pace placed third in the individual category and two years later, in Luxembourg, he was twice on the podium when he went on to win the silver medal for the team and bronze in the individual Compound.

The Archery Association receives support and direct assistance from the Malta Olympic Committee.