As from Friday 5 October, the Maltese Olympic Committee’s flagship television programme will start with another series of MIA OLYMPIC SPECIAL, which will focus on promoting and highlighting the Olympic Movement in Malta and local sport.

The new series will consist of 13 programmes produced by the MOC, in collaboration with Ed22, and with the support of the Malta International Airport and the Olympic Solidarity.

Following the success achieved with the first series, especially since being nominated for the international sport cinema festival 2007 (FICTS), it has been selected from 975 entries out of 43 countries.

One of the first programmes of MIA Olympic Special will feature an athlete’s profile on Angela Galea MD, a dancer and a semi-professional swimmer. The documentary includes an interview carried out by students of the University’s Communication Centre, Olwyn Saliba and Elaine Galea.

The movie asks the following question: What is Taewkondo? Taekwondo is a dynamic and combative sport, as Kremera Ilieva and Eleonora Rose Abela, students at the University’s Communication Centre, try to demonstrate through this movie.

Featured events include the XI Malta IDSF International Open Championships 2006, organised by the Malta- Dance Sport Association. Highlights from the Bodybuilding National Championships and the Triathlon National Championships will be shown at this prestigious festival on Tuesday 30 October at the Palazzo Giureconsulti, Piazza Mercanti 2, Milan (corner Piazza Duomo).

Malta’s entry will also competing for the title “Guirlande d’Honneur” The results will be announced on Thursday, 1 November during the Awards Ceremony, Palazzo Marino Piazza Scala 2, Milan.

MOC’s new series gives further details to the televiewers on the national associations affiliated with the MOC. Feature footage from past editions of the Olympic Games dating from the first edition in 1896 to the last edition held in Athens in 2004 will be shown.

The MIA Olympic Special also aims to give credit to young athletes as well as to what Team Malta athletes are doing in view of the Beijing Olympic Games.

With the supervision of Charles Camenzuli, Director of media within the MOC and executive producer Simon Farrugia, televiewers will have the opportunity to ask questions and get information from interviews and features prepared by Vicky Licari and Renzo Galea who are up to date on Malta’s sports calendar. Filming and editing will be once again in the hands of Marjo Parascandolo, of Lunik Digital.

In collaboration with Ed22, MIA Olympic Special will be aired weekly on Friday’s at 9pm, Sunday’s at 9am and Monday’s at noon; it will also be broadcast on TVM every Sunday at 5.25pm.

For regular updates and other information visit www.nocmalta.org

MOC meets Rijeka 2013 bid officials

Former Prime Minister of Croatia, Mr Zlatko Matesa, now President of the Croatian Olympic Committee, together with Mr Cojko Obersnel, mayor of the City of Rijeka and Ms Ljiljana Ujlaki Subic, head of the International Co-operation Dept, had the opportunity to meet officials from the Maltese Olympic Committee. Mr Matesa spoke at length and presented the city of Rijeka’s bid for the 2013 edition of the Mediterranean Games.

Rijeka will be making their fourth attempt to organise the Mediterranean Games. For the 2013 edition, Rijeka will be in the running with the cities of Volos (Greece) and Mersin (Turkey). The decision will be announced on 25 October during the Mediterranean Games General Assembly, due to be held in Pescara.

Mr Matesa and Mr Obersnel gave details on both the sports programme and the infrastructure Rijeka is planning for the Games, as well as on the experience Croatia already has in organizing top level competitions.

The MOC president, Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco, thanked the Croatian delegation for their co-operation, and which has always existed between the Maltese and Croatian Olympic committees.

‘Building on our Success’ – national seminar organised by the MOC

“Building on our Success” was the main topic on the agenda of a one-day seminar organised by the Maltese Olympic Committee.

The Seminar was addressed by Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco, President of the MOC, who referred to the development registered by local sport during the last 10 years, including the results achieved in various GSSE editions, Mediterranean and Commonwealth Games, as well as international participation at youth level. During the last 11 years a total grant of Lm1.4 million, together with other funds generated by the MOC, technical assistance and funding for 48 national affiliated associations was possible.

The MOC President also referred to the future of sports in Malta, the improvement reached so far and the targets to be reached, including fourth place in the GSSE in Cyprus in 2009, as well as projections for the Mediterranean Games in Pescara in 2009, Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010 and the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Mr Joe Cassar, General Secretary of the MOC, explained the line of direction of the MOC, and how the Team Malta project embraced all affiliated associations. In reference to the sense of co-operation between the national associations and the MOC, Mr Cassar emphasised its role towards the development of sport.

Director of Sport, Pippo Psaila, gave an overview of the development registered in local sport since 1995 where, until that edition, Malta had won only 58 medals. To date the medals tally has increased to 254. Following an overview of GSSE medals won by discipline, Monaco 2007 was an eye opener for local sport.

He also spoke about pre-set strategic objectives for the period 2008-2012. The Director of Sport went into detail about the current schemes which have proved successful, and which are to be retained; including the elite and aspirant schemes, sparring partners’ schemes, and the non-resident and semi-professional schemes, together with the medical scheme which proved to be fruitful but which ought to be given more attention by the national associations. Reference was made to the development of coaching levels within national associations, where above all, his personality, ability and general background are the ingredients he needs to transmit to athletes to achieve better results.

Mr Psaila made also reference to how the MOC has to integrate the work of the youth directorate with that of the sports directorate.

The seminar was also addressed by sports psychologist Adele Muscat who tackled “Sports psychology in today’s top level sport”, Chris Farrugia on ‘ Genetic Testing for sport performance’ as well as by Dr.Olga Fedotkina, sports scientist from the MOC Functional Diagnostic Laboratory, and who tackled the topic “Testing, monitor and screening of athletes – why, when and how”.

IOC News: Seven applicant NOCs/cities for the 2016 Olympic Games

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that seven cities have put forward applications to host the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in 2016.

The cities, in alphabetical order, are: Baku (Azerbaijan), Chicago (USA), Doha (Qatar), Madrid (Spain), Prague (Czech Republic), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Tokyo (Japan).*

NOC’s had until 13 September 2007 to notify the IOC that a city within their jurisdiction was interested in applying.

The seven applicant cities will now proceed to Phase 1 of the IOC’s two-step procedure, which will lead to the election of the 2016 host city in Copenhagen in October 2009.

Phase 1, known as the Candidature Acceptance Procedure, involves a thorough review by the IOC of each city’s potential to organise successful Olympic Games in 2016.

Cities are required to answer a questionnaire, and their answers are studied by the IOC. At the end of this first phase, the IOC Executive Board selects the cities that will become Candidate Cities and therefore move on to Phase 2.

During Phase 2, known as the Candidature Procedure, Candidate Cities will be requested to submit their Candidature File – which is an in-depth description of their Olympic project – and will be subject to a technical assessment made by a visiting team – the IOC Evaluation Commission.

The IOC Evaluation Commission’s appraisal will be published in a report, and sent to IOC members no later than one month before they cast their vote on 2 October 2009. The report will also be available for public perusal.