Malta’s clan in Andorra is very optimistic about obtaining some good results. And

We arrived with the final part of the contingent (basketball women’s squad, taekwondo squad and MOC officials) late on Sunday evening to join the other athletes and officials who had been in Andorra since the previous week to get accustomed to the weather.

The climate here is mild with the day temperature hovering around 22°C and 17°C at night. It is expected to remain mostly the same throughout the week of competition. Yesterday morning we had some light rain, but this in no way effected the proceedings.

Malta is expected to start its medal haul in Andorra this evening, especially in the track events at the Stadium close to where the opening ceremony was held last night.

In fact, the first medals today are to be won in the individual cycling time-trial and on the track in athletics.

At the small stadium here, everyone seems to be expecting veteran Carol Galea to successfully defend her 5,000 metres gold medal she won in Malta in the final starting at 7pm.

Yesterday morning, the organisers seemed to be somewhat worried that not everything was going well, especially at the headquarters where problems cropped up in every department.

At the press centre, we did not even find our accreditations, sent in February, ready and these, together with those for journalists from some other countries, had to be made afresh. Telephone lines seemed to be inexistent as only two were made available for the over 200 pressmen covering the Games.

In fact, these Games are growing a lot in importance, so much so that there are also representatives from sections of the press in Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain and even the United States who are covering the event.

Malta’s Chef de Mission, Pippo Psaila, said yesterday that transport being provided for the athletes and their officials, was simply poor and hoped it would improve immediately after complaints made by almost all the participating countries.