Athletics Malta was recently invited to field a team for the 2008 European Kids Championships which were held last month in Brno, the Czech Republic. In all, the organisers hosted over 700 youngsters aged from 11 to 15.
In the previous two editions of these championships, the Athletics Malta youths had managed 16 medals in total but in this competition, the Maltese contingent was restricted to 10 athletes, six boys and four girls. These were Jeremy Borg, Robert Zammit and Ian Paul Grech, all born in 1993, and Christian Luke Chetcuti, Daniel Vella and Clayton Sheldon born in 1994. The elder girls were Tamara Vella and Jana Pace Cocks while those born in 1994 were Daniela Gauci Borda and Nadine Aquilina.
The two-day event was held in rather wintry conditions. The Maltese, nevertheless, went on to collect another bagful of medals, six in all, five individual and one in relays.
Chetcuti took centre-stage. He was first in the 1,500m race in a good time of 4:31.21. He was eventually declared as having produced the Best Technical Performance. This earned him an extra prize - a helicopter ride over the capital of Moravia.
Aquilina managed second place in the shot putt by hurling the implement a distance of 10.37 metres.
In the same age category for boys, Vella had the satisfaction of making third place his own by managing a best throw of 11.68 metres. Borg and Tamara Vella both finished third in their respective long jump events to garner the other individual medals.
Chetcuti also competed in the 300m where he finished fifth while Vella reached the B final in the 60m in which she placed second. The other athletes fared well enough to finish very close to the podium.
In fact, Sheldon contested the final of the 60m sprint, only to miss out on his target by finishing fourth in a new PB of 7.60 seconds and fifth in the long jump, clearing 5.39m for another PB.
In other events, Cocks figured in the 60m B final and came in third, sixth in the long jump and fifth in the 300m while Robert Zammit was fifth in the 1,500m.
Gauci Borda had satisfactory results in the 60 and the 300 metres as did Grech in his 60m and in long jump, in which he was fifth with a leap of four cm over six metres.
The climax of the second day was the relays. The Maltese boys had high hopes of finishing on the podium and they did just that, getting the baton over the line in a time of 29.02 seconds. The team was made up of Grech, Borg, Chetcuti and Sheldon.
The visit of the team, under the watchful eyes of council member and coach Mario Micallef, and official Mary Rose Herd, was made possible through the assistance of the Kunsill Malti għall-iSport and Air Malta.