GSSE- Andorra

Definitely the best performance by any local team in these games to date. Two gold, nine silver and six bronze medals won by a team of 19 athletes.

Indeed it was a most memorable moment in the lives of Jeandre Mallia, Rashid Chouhal, Mario Bonello and Darren Gilford when they won the gold in the 4 x 100m relay in the national record time of 40.63 secs. Just as fantastic was Carol Walsh in the 10,000m when she simply ran away from the opposition after the first 800 metres. Carol had already won the Silver medal in the 5000m before winning this Gold.

The other silver medals were won by young Martina Xuereb in the 400m, Lisa Marie Bezzina in the 10,000m, Rebecca Camilleri in the Long Jump. Both the women's 4 x 100m relay ( Lara Scerri, Therese Mallia, Charlene Attard & Diane Borg) the 4 x 400m relay (Diane Borg, Charlene Attard, Lara Scerri & Martina Xuereb) teams also won the Silver medals.

Rashid Chouhal was the only athlete to win two Silver medals in individual events, namely the Long Jump and the Triple Jump. The men's 4 x 400m relay team, composed of Ivan Borg, Mario Bonello, Karl Farrugia and Nikolai Portelli also won the Silver medal. The Bronze medals were won by Darren Gilford in the 100m, Charlene Attard and Mario Bonello both in the 200m event, by Nikolai Portelli in the 400m, Lisa Bezzina in the 800m, and last but not least, by Jean Paul Callus in the Javelin.

In fact a very impressive haul of medals!

Coaching

For the 2004/2005 season the MAAA had embarked upon a project termed "Event Coaches". The project is two-pronged, and involves appointing local coaches to direct and monitor specific areas of specialised training, as well as inviting over to Malta foreign coaches as "mentors", able to conduct seminars among local coaches and lead and advise our event coaches.

This project has received the approval of the EAA who are also partly funding this project. The association has requested and will be extending and enlarging this project by employing more coaches during the year 2006.

In the past year, the Malta AAA appointed a sprints coach (Leandros Calleja) and a middle distance coach (Ralph Mifsud). The MAAA also brought over two foreign coaches who were Mr Mike McFarlane (GBR - sprints) and Olympian Gergeli Kulcsar (Hungary - throws), who in fact acted as the event coach himself.

In 2005, the MAAA participated in two IAAF Academy Courses with Aras Zeljko (Sprints) and Ralph Mifsud (Middle Distance). These were highly rated experiences enabling our coaching arsenal to reach a 'third level' in elite and chief coaching skills. Towards the end of the year, Lara Gerada, on her own initiative, attended the IAAF - Chief Coaches Course held in Singapore, again demonstrating that in this area the association is literally better equipped than other nations much larger, technically and demographically than our own.

EAA honour for MAAA President

During the Congress of the European Athletic Association that was held on 16 April, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, MAAA President Anthony Chircop was awarded the Golden Pin by the EAA for service to the sport. This is a very prestigious award for people engaged in the administration of athletics and in fact the only other person who was presented with a similar honour was Prof. Dr. Maria Ordiolosa, the President of the Athletic Association of Spain.

Mr Chircop, who holds an appointment as member on the Reflections Committee of the EAA., was again reappointed member on this Board for this year.

EAA Calendar Conference 2007

We could not help noting that the stature of our association was greatly enhanced with the international associations when we organised here in Malta such events as the European Coaches Association Congress and the Winter Throwing Challenge. We are now seeing a more positive approach to our requests for assistance and more respect to our Association in spite of our size.

When, in October, 2005, the EAA held its annual Calendar Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, Mr Chircop defended the Maltese association's bid to hold the EAA Calendar Conference here in Malta in October 2007. During the presentation he also showed a promotional video prepared by the MTA that was very well received.

"Y Athletics?"

The MAAA has, for years now, felt the need to promote better the sport of athletics in Malta, especially in the media. It was therefore decided to have its own TV Programme. The start has been a modest half an hour programme on Smash TV which took off in mid-December and will continue up till the end of June 2006. The association is looking at ways and means to improve the programme while it is also thinking of investing in equipment to ensure that its activities will be given more prominence in the future.

Events for Veteran Athletes

The MAAA is doing its utmost to generate more interest in events for veteran athletes. Apart from organising the usual Road Races for the various veteran categories, the association sent two athletes, namely Carol Walsh and Alfred Debono, to represent it in the European Road Running championships which were held in San Antonio, in Portugal.

Carol, who was at that time preparing herself for the GSSE Games, showed her mettle when she emerged the overall winner in the 10K in 36.46 minutes. Alfred Debono placed a creditable 7th in his category.

Cecilia Fenech and Alfred Debono participated in the World Masters Championships which were held in San Sebastian in Spain. The latter athletes were accompanied by MAAA Council member Charles Pullincino who attended the Annual General Meeting of the World Masters Athletic Association.

Athletes of the Year Award

Our calendar of events was concluded by the holding of the Annual Awards night at a leading local hotel where Diane Borg and Darren Gilford were honoured by being awarded the female and male Athletes of the Year 2005 respectively.

The Track Contract

The long pending Track Contract has been a seemingly unattainable goal for some years now. Although each year some progress is reported this inevitably turns to be just more hot air. However, at least it can be confirmed that some progress was indeed attained, even if the association has yet to come out of the woods.

At least the MAAA now knows that the Lands Department are indeed out of the equation and the onus is fully square on the shoulders of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Employment.

The information officially confirmed by the Kunsill Malti Ghal-Isport is that all necessary documentation has been passed to the Ministry.

One positive point that has came from our contacts with the IAAF is written confirmation that we can expect their assistance if and when we take over the management of the track.