Another year has gone by and another one has already started. At this time of the year, it is usual to outline the past year’s memorable moments as well as the disappointments in the field of local sports.

We did not have much memorable moments during the past year and the main satisfaction was provided by young shooter William Chetcuti who finished a highly creditable ninth at the Athens Olympics, although only after a shoot-off. In actual fact, he had registered the same score as the sixth placed before the shoot-off.

This youngster was, by far, the most polished Maltese performer in the year 2004, but we must all admit that he could have possibly gone a longer way had not we put a lot of pressure upon him before his participation at the Olympics.

Did not we all, perhaps, ask too much of him when we were expecting a medal?

One of the main highlights of the past year was the return to the Malta Olympic Committee fold of its Sports Director Pippo Psaila.

He had resigned from the post in June 2003, soon after the end of the Malta edition of the Games for European Small Nations. That had been a bolt from the blue as was his decision to get back. He told me in November, when he announced his return, that he did not wish to see nine years of hard work to go by the wayside.

We all know what Pippo is capable of. And given his credentials, we must all hope that Malta will get the results everyone desires at the forthcoming Andorra Games next summer and the Mediterranean Games in Spain.

Snooker also made Malta proud the past year with the national team winning the first ever European team title through Alex Borg, Duncan Bezzina and Simon Zammit.

Alex Borg, apart from winning the local championship, also did well to reach the final of the European championship in Austria and registered a good run of positive results before being eliminated at the last 16 stage in the world championship held last month.

Other successes were registered in bowling where Melissa Anastasi won the gold, silver and bronze medals in different categories at the Mediterranean Championships.

In the teams events, we had two Sliema teams making their town proud. In football, Sliema Wanderers obtained a memorable double, winning the League for a second consecutive time and the FA Trophy, beating Marsaxlokk 2-0 in the final. In waterpolo, Sliema Burger King won their third consecutive summer title.

At international level, we had a confirmation by the women’s basketball team of their progress since their gold medal win in 2003 at the Small Nations Games in Malta. In Andorra the past summer, they grabbed the bronze medal in the Promotion Cup tournament which is of a higher level than that in the Small Nations Games event.

The Rugby team also continued to hit the headlines with some other fantastic results, but they marred another successful year with a performance which should never be repeated, especially on Maltese soil. The violent behaviour witnessed during the defeat at Marsa against Poland did not go down well with local followers of the game who have been on the increase in recent matches.

In the football field, there were the usual disappointments with the national team, at least, gaining a point in a World Cup qualifier at home against Iceland, although figuring in a very heavy 0-7 defeat, also at home, against Sweden.

The year ended with a satisfying goalless friendly draw against an Andalusia Selection in Seville last Wednesday.

But at club level, none of the local clubs managed to go beyond the first qualifying round, although Birkirkara, at least did record a ‘useless’ victory at home against Partizan Tirana.

I cannot say we had a disappointing year overall, but I feel we could have done better even locally.

During the past year, I consider as a main disappointment the fact that local sport is generally not well patronised by local enthusiasts.

Football remains, most probably, the most popular sport, but it is sad to note that even the matches between the top clubs today fail to attract more than 5,000 persons, and that is a big rarity nowadays.

The same problems are being faced by basketball, volleyball, hockey, handball and every other team sport.

It is evident that local sports-loving people are preferring to watch football and other sports from the comfort of their homes rather than giving their full support to the locals who, quite obviously, provide little entertainment and of a rather low quality at that, also considering the lack of real sporting atmopsphere at our stadia.

At the end, one must also congratulate some of our officials who have been elected to European top posts, among them Dr Joe Mifsud (football), UEFA Executive Committee, Envic Galea, general secretary of the European Judo Union and John Borg (football), member of the UEFA Club Forum executive committee.

We now look forward to the year 2005 in the hope, as usual, to see better results being obtained by our sportsmen, though as usual, I will be the first to appeal to our athletes to show more dedication and commitment if they are to succeed.

It is also the year in which Malta will have a strong contingent taking part in the Andorra Games for European Small Nations and a smaller contingent at the Mediterranean Games in Spain.

Let us all hope that our athletes will be motivated in the right manner to remain at least on track, after the successes obtain almost two years ago in the Malta edition of the Games for Europe’s Small States.