The Commonwealth Games adventure is over and it is time for an assessment of the overall performance of the Maltese athletes. The return from these Games was two medals – a silver medal by Rebecca Attard Madyson in the women’s trap shooting event and a bronze medal for William Chetcuti in the Double Trap Shooting event. But there were more positive results.

Two medals in the same discipline, but on the whole an improvement over the 2002 Games in Manchester where we had won a bronze medal only through Chetcuti, again in the Double Trap competition.

While Chetcuti just confirmed his potential – he could have easily landed the gold medal had he hit two more targets in the barrage – this was an excellent opportunity for the Malta Olympic Committee to take stock of the Maltese-Australian performers who represented the island for the first time ever.

It is true that, in all probability, we had such a fairly sized contingent because the Games were held in Melbourne, Australia, home to large thousands of Maltese. And that is why half the contingent consisted of Maltese-Australian athletes who, I must say, did not let our colours down.

To start with, Rebecca Attard Madyson, despite her condition – she is pregnant – perhaps even went beyond expectation in winning that silver medal which is very prestigious. I am sure that everyone will agree that she also needs attention and should be given the chance to represent Malta in various competitions in preparation for the Beijing Olympics in two years’ time.

There were also some good performances in the Lawn Bowls events, especially in the Mixed Pairs, where Leonard Callus and Francis Vella just missed a place in the final and then just missed out on the bronze medal. Also I cannot fail to mention the fourth placing of Lindsay Borg, though for fairness sake, she was not close to a podium finish, considering the results she obtained. We also heard of the good performance of the cyclists, especially in the time trial, where Jack Schiavone and Etienne Bonello showed considerable improvement.

I am not going to delve into the performances of the other athletes. I am sure they all did their best which, in most cases, was not enough, because of the high standard obtainable in these games, especially in the pool and in the basketball court.

Here it will also be interesting to know whether the Malta Olympic Committee has managed to find other Maltese-Australians who might be potential participants at the next Olympics – in the name of our country. If I am not mistaken, they had also had to stage a meeting in this sense, but no information has been issued so far.

Rebecca’s silver medal, once again, brought to the fore some arguments in the sense that she is a foreigner. These same persons maintain that only Maltese athletes resident in Malta should take part in these Games. I alone have met at least three such persons who told me they do not consider her as Maltese, simply because she is not resident in Malta.

Hearing such arguments, I can only understand whey we remain so far apart from the others in this regard. Do not such people know that the mighty Australia might have made use of an Irish runner – Sonia O’Sullivan – had she not been injured in the final run to the Games?

Come on, all of us. Let us grow. Let us do what ALL the others do. We must all accept the fact that these ‘foreign’ athletes, whether they hail from Australia, Canada, the US, England or from anywhere else around the globe, are all our brothers and sisters. They are all eligible to represent the country, so long as they are in possession of a Maltese passport or have Maltese citizenship; otherwise they would not be allowed to do so by our Olympic Committee.

In my opinion, if we were to deny these athletes the right to represent Malta, then we would be throwing away our already slight chances of putting Malta on the sporting map in a bigger manner than that at present.

These results have proved the Malta Olympic Committee right. Let us not forget that these Games are of a much higher standard that the Small Nations Games. Now the MOC’s first task is to announce a bonus to the two medal winners – something which the two athletes really deserve. Not only, but this bonus should also serve as a motivation for other athletes to make even bolder efforts if they are to reach the Beijing 2008 target.

A big well done to all those Maltese-Australians who went to the venues to give their full support to the Maltese athletes. Over here, the vast majority will certainly appreciate such a gesture. It was, in part, that kind of patriotic support, that led to the successful results which were witnessed in Melbourne.

And to cap it all, we also had a Maltese basketball referee, Bernard Vassallo making headline news after being called to control several top matches in front of capacity crowds, including the women’s final between Australia and New Zealand.

A big thank you to all. They were all Maltese ambassadors during the past fortnight.