The Melbourne Games will be held between 15 and 26 March. It is expected that 4,500 athletes will take part. The Melbourne 2006 Sports Programme comprises 12 individual and four team sports, with a total of 24 disciplines to be contested.
The first Commonwealth Games took place in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1930. Bobby Robinson, a key force within Athletics in Canada, finally implemented the event that had been talked about among Commonwealth nations for over 30 years. Eleven countries boasting 400 athletes in total participated in the first Games. Since then the Games have been conducted every four years except for 1942 and 1946, when World War II intervened. Sixteen Games have been held in total, with three of these hosted by Australian cities – Sydney 1938, Perth 1962 and Brisbane 1982.
Every four years the nations of the Commonwealth gather to enjoy the friendship, entertainment and sporting performances that make the Commonwealth Games the most tangible mortar binding together this unique family of nations. There are 71 member countries in the Commonwealth Games Federation.
Malta at the Games
The Republic of Malta entered the Commonwealth in 1964 but made its debut at the 1958 Games in Cardiff, Wales. Since then they have attended all Games bar three editions and have enjoyed medal success in judo and shooting.
In 1958, Malta’s first athletes at these Games competed in swimming, namely, F. Miruzzi (110 Yards freestyle), A. Galea (110 Yards Freestyle/backstroke), A. Muscat (110 Yards backstroke) and W. Mamo (220 yards butterfly).
In 1962, Perth, Australia Charles Mifsud competed in weightlifting and managed to place 4th, missing out on a possible first Medal in these Games for Malta.
In 1970, Edinburgh, Scotland, this time Malta was represented in Wrestling with athlete R.J. Lauri who managed to place 5th.
In 1982, Brisbane, Australia Joanna Agius competed in Archery, Francis Chetcuti and Raphael Toledo in Shooting and Renato and Alex Saliba in wrestling. N Camilleri, Raphael Toledo and G. Micallef took part in the 1986 Edinburgh Games.
Finally in 1990 at the Auckland New Zealand Games, Malta managed to win its first Commonwealth medal when Laurie Pace took Bronze in Judo. Other athletes’ taking part were shooters Joe and Silvio Attard.
In 1994, in Victoria, Canada Carol Galea took part in the Marathon and Frans Pace, Charles Grech, Paul Vella and Francis Chetcuti formed the Shooting contingent.
At the Kuala Lumpur Games in 1998 Carol Galea once again competed in the marathon, Frans Pace and Joe Attard again in shooting; John Tabone and Rachel Sullivan in the swimming events and athletes Dennis Mercieca, Emanuel Baldacchino, Melisa Anastasi and Sue Abela in Tenpin Bowling.
Not until 2002 did the Malta team managed to win another medal at the last edition of the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester. William Chetcuti won a Bronze in the double trap. The rest of the Malta contingent consisted of Raschid Chouhal and Carol Galea for athletics, Angela Galea and Roberta Callus for swimming, Dermot Galea, Manwel Falzon and Maria Mifsud Bonnici for triathlon, Jesmond Giordimaina, Abraham Vassallo for Wrestling, Kevin Cassar for Weightlifting and the rest of the shooters were Mario Abela, Raymond Cacciattolo, William Vella, Joseph Attard, Nicholas Carabott, Paul Vella and Joe Genovese.