From the outset of discussing briefly Malta’s venture in the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, I strongly believe it is only fair to meritedly say a big ‘well done’ to the two medal-winners, Rebecca Madyson and William Chetcuti (named in order of ‘medal colour’), both hailing from the same sport, namely shooting.

Both these athletes managed to bring home Malta’s best ever-result in the international field (something that was practically a dream a decade ago).

Unfortunately there were some who commented that Madyson’s medal was not purely Maltese as she is an Australian-Maltese and even represented Australia before in the 2005 World Championships and World Cup in Italy placing 50th and 39th respectively. Yet did the shooting federation do wrong when Madyson contacted them and asked them to join the Malta team after, according to BBC Sport, she had Googled her maiden surname, Attard, and the Maltese federation’s website was shown?

Personally I think that in today’s global world this is all hop-scotch. Technically it is true that Madyson is not a pure 10 per cent Maltese (in fact, quoting from the Herald Sun, “Malta was her second choice as she had hoped to represent Australia, where she has spent her life, but yet she was equally proud of her achievement”) but I still am in favour of the local sporting authorities’ venture to lure athletes with legal Maltese connections living abroad (and with a higher level than that found on our islands) to start competing for our national colours.

After all, big (in a sporting sense) countries have been doing likewise for quite some time. Just to mention also some additional names that featured in Melbourne 2006, what about Adam Vella (gold medal winner shooting) and Hollie Grima (basketball player for Australia who won gold), two athletes with clear Maltese blood in their veins?

As for William Chetcuti, unfortunately there has lately been some negative talk going on, especially in circles where some tend to display amateurish and/or inconsiderate opinions on the reality of top level sports, as regards his bronze medal and his latest placing at a World Cup Shoot. Hello??? We are talking of world class competition here and not the local village competition!

I have written before that maybe too much pressure has been placed on Chetcuti in the past years. I was never in favour of projecting him too much publicly as a medal hopeful from a young age but now this is a fact that no one can change.

William has however kept going on and is always improving and preparing, according to reports, in a good professional manner aided by his federation, MOC and KMS. He has undoubtedly great potential and will eventually do Malta more proud but we must be patient and let him develop in a stress-free environment.

Without a doubt, we all would like to see him raise Malta’s flag to a higher level if possible today and not tomorrow, yet one has to fully understand the atmosphere, vibe and general environment at high world levels to have a real feeling of what to expect.

Unfortunately, many of those who end up commenting on Chetcuti have no idea of what world class competition actually entails. Not that I regard myself as being able to comment at a 100 per cent level but I have a teeny weenie experience of competition at a general high level. My end statement, let William progress further and we will have the last and best laugh and we must not forget that we cannot expect a win every time just like another athlete or champion team cannot win all the time!

At the Commonwealth Games, Malta was also very close to win more medals as two 4th places were acquired in weightlifting and lawn bowls respectively (co-incidentally with Australian-Maltese representing Malta in both the disciplines). Although it would have been nice to have more medals, everything still boils down to the fact, which no one can deny, that this was a great result for Malta after that Laurie Pace had brought the first ever Commonwealth medal (bronze) 16 years ago in Auckland, New Zealand followed by the bronze medal won by the young talented shooter Chetcuti in Manchester, England, four years ago.

One of the major players, if not the prime player, behind this success is without doubt the Malta Olympic Committee. In the past years, the MOC has embarked on a professional policy as regards the preparation, selection and funding of athletes and the initial results have started to emerge.

I am one who likes to speak, what I believe is, the truth and thus in this case I openly state that similar prestigious results (after all the MOC has generally done Malta proud by placing our country on a higher placing on the world sports map) could mushroom in the future if such policies are adhered to, possibly with additional support and funding from various sources.

There has been much talk lately of Malta finally arriving to having its flag being raised during an Olympic Games medal ceremony (especially in the shooting competition where we now have two hopefuls to do so) and in this regard I fully back the MOC’s decision to monitor the country’s strong and weak points (sporting wise) and devoting a lot of energy on the strong potential athletes (similar to what Italy do in the fencing field) and hopefully still keeping a healthy balance with all the other sport disciplines.

Apart from the shooting success, there were other good results in Melbourne and the final standings were, in general, satisfactory.

I do not think (it is my general personal policy to do so) it would be fair on my part to comment on most of the other disciplines (Malta was represented in 8 out of 24 different sports in Australia), apart from basketball, as my expertise and deep knowledge in these diverse fields, as regards technical and preparation matters, is limited to just following the respective sport and does not go deeper.

In basketball (this was the first ever time that basketball was played in the Commonwealth Games and the feeling amongst the organisers at the end of the Games was that basketball was a definite success in all senses and in fact there are strong efforts being made to have basketball in the 2010 Games after India had originally, some months ago, opted not to do so) Malta was represented by the female national team. This was a team that qualified for Melbourne 2006 on its own merits after qualifying, in 2004, from the European continent.

(Part 2 will be published next week)