Under a clear starry night in a unique oriental setting decorated appropriately with Chinese lanterns and Chinese knots, over 250 people came together on Friday to support Team Malta for the official Olympic send-off ceremony; which was held on the Bastion Terrace of the Grand Hotel Excelsior and included an Asian Night Buffet.
The athletes launched the evening by showing off the official sports wear provided by JOMA, local agents Fullmarks Sporting, and uniforms provided by Bortex that will be worn at the Beijing Olympic Games. Compered by TV personality Charles Camenzuli and involving five of the Olympic athletes namely Marcon, Charlene, William, Ryan and Nicolai together they gave of a spectacular show coordinated by Allevents Malta.
To ensure that the athlete’s looked the part they were given complete make-over’s for their role in modelling the outfits, thanks to Nigel and Gordon from Toni & Guy and Louise Gouder and Gordon Borg from Revlon who gave their support without hesitation.
Following the brilliant show, Mr Grahame Elliot of the Grand Hotel Excelsior presented each athlete with a small token as a sign of goodwill before leaving for the Beijing Olympic Games.
This was then followed by a number of speeches delivered by Mr Joseph Cassar MOC secretary general, the Chinese Ambassador Mr Chai Xi of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Malta and the MOC president
Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco. The evening was a complete success and very memorable for all who were present.
Team Malta
Athletes for Beijing Olympic Games
William Chetcuti is no newcomer having represented Malta at the Athens Olympic Games in double trap where he managed to make it to the barrage final and placed 9th. Four year’s later he is once again representing Malta this time with four years of preparation, practice and experience.
He has been regularly participating in top level competitions and training programmes to help him reach his optimum level for these Beijing Olympic Games. William will be competing with many top level shooters who he has come to know and will surely be a contender not to ignore.
William is one of Malta’s most talented athlete’s who has the closest chance on claiming Malta’s first ever Olympic medal. He is 23 years old and has been practising his sport for a good number of years.
William will be in action on 12 August at the Beijing Shooting Range between 9am and 4.15pm where the qualifying rounds, the final and medal ceremony will take place.
Marcon Bezzina made her debut at the Olympic Games in Athens 2004; she had a tough opponent and was soon eliminated.
Like William, Marcon has had four year’s to prepare and develop her competition experience. In this period she has claimed the gold medal twice in two different weight categories at the last two editions of the Games of Small States of Europe in Andorra 2005 and Monaco 2007.
Marcon is fortunate to be studying at Bath University in the UK for the last 2 year’s where she is training with Team GB, Judo team which has definitely contributed to her high level of standard and will give her a better chance on the mat at the Beijing Olympic Games.
She is 22 years old and has been practicing her sport for 11 years. Marcon will be in action on 12 August at the Beijing Science and Technology University between noon and 4.30pm for the preliminaries/ repechages for the U63kg; between 6pm and 7.30pm the repechage and finals between groups A and B will take place followed by the Bronze medal match, the Gold medal match and the medal ceremony.
Ryan Gambin who recently moved to Malta after having previously lived and represented Australia, to follow his dream to represent and compete for Malta in the sport of swimming.
He represented Malta for the first time this year at the European Swimming Championship; at these Championships Ryan competed in a number of categories managing to make a number of national records and most importantly making history by being Malta’s first swimmer to qualify for the Olympic Games with a 54.33secs in the 100m butterfly (qualifying B standard was 54.71secs).
Ryan is also Malta’s second person to qualify for the Olympic Games, the first being Tanya Blake who made the qualifying time in the 800mtr and took part in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
He is 22yrs old and has been practising his sport for 16 years. Ryan who will be competing in the 100m butterfly at the National Aquatics Centre will be in action on 14 August for the heats being held between 6.30pm and 8.40pm; the semi-finals will take place the next day between 10am and 11.34am with the finals and medal ceremony taking place on 16 August between 10am and 11.20am.
Madeleine Scerri is a Maltese swimmer residing in Australia; she represented Malta for the first time at the Games of the Small States of Europe in Monaco last year winning three Bronze medals in the 200 metres and 100 metres backstroke and in the 4x100 metres with the medley team.
Since these games Madeleine has continued to improve her standard and times and most recently represented Malta in the Luxembourg Open combined with the first edition of the Swimming GSSE competitions; here she managed to come first in the 100m freestyle with a time of 59.36secs and placed second in the 50m freestyle with a 27.66secs and 200m freestyle with a 2:12.34.
She is 19 years old and has been practising her sport from a very young age. Madeleine will be competing in the 100m freestyle at the National Aquatics Centre and will be in action on the 13 August in the heats between 6.30am and noon. The semi finals take place the next day between 10am and noon with the finals and medal ceremony taking place on the 15 August between 10am and 11.34am.
Charlene Attard is another well known face in the field of athletics. She is the first Maltese woman to run under the 12 seconds in the 100m sprint and holds the national records in the 200mtr as well as the 60m outdoors.
She has represented Malta at the Games of the Small States of Europe, which in the last edition she walked away with four medals: silver medal in the 100 metres, bronze medal in the 200 metres, silver medal in the 4x100 metres and bronze in the 4x400 metres.
She has represented Malta in the World Indoors, the last World Championships in Osaka and will participate in the European Cup being held in Slovakia.
Charlene is 21 years old and has been practising her sport for 16 years. She will be competing in the 100m sprints at the National Stadium on 16 August between 9am and 1pm for the qualifying rounds with the second rounds taking place between 7pm and 10.40pm. The semi finals, finals and medal ceremony will take place on the 17 August between 7pm and 11.25pm.
Nicolai Portelli is Malta’s leading 400m athlete on the island, and unbeaten locally for the past five years over the same distance.
He is the holder of the national record which is set at 48.14secs. Recently, he also claimed the national title in the 200m. He has represented Malta many a time at the Games of the Small states in the 400m and especially in the relay teams; in addition to the European Cup.
Nicolai is 27 years old and has been practicing his sport for 14 years. Nicolai will be competing in the 200m sprints at the National Stadium on 18 August between 9am and 11.58am for the first qualifying rounds with the second rounds taking place between 7pm and 10.10pm.
The semi finals take place on 19 August and finals/medal ceremony the following day.