‘Analizi Team Malta’ on Education 22
Seasoned sports presenter George Micallef is the producer and host of Analizi Team Malta, a daily one-hour live programme on Education 22 focusing on the Games of the Small States of Europe being held in Monaco this week.
Analizi Team Malta will be a blend of the latest news, highlights, interviews and in-depth analysis.
There will be live updates from Monaco by Education 22 correspondent Vicky Licari and MOC Director of Sport Pippo Psaila.
Viewers can also look forward to features focusing on the top Maltese athletes taking part in these games. Broadcast live at 9.30pm, this studio-based programme encourages sports followers to voice their opinions by email and text messages. Moyra Felice is the director and Renzo Galea is the co-producer.
Report on Malta’s participation in the COJI 2007
This year, the Maltese Olympic Committee with a depleted team that was decimated by exams and minor injuries. In fact, the MOC was represented only in Athletics and Sailing, as the Judo federation could not take part.
The games were organised in the beautiful island of Corsica, where the local government had invested more than EUR4 million in the refurbishment of the sports facilities in Bastia and Ajaccio. The games, which are open to young athletes under the age of 16, were held in these two cities, that are situated at either end of the island. The opening ceremony was held in Bastia and in the evening, the athletes competing in Ajaccio, in the south of the island were transferred on a cruise liner.
The dynamic president and founder of these games, Pierre Santoni, is untiring in his efforts to make them of a higher standard every year, and although there were minor problems with transport and communication, the games technically proved to be of a very high standard.
In Athletics, all the participants have been selected to take part in the Games of the Small States of Europe. In Sailing, the sailors from the Isle of White, Gran Canarias, Sardinia and Sicily form part of the National Teams of Great Britain, Spain and Italy respectively and as such the sailors train every weekend with the national team and all costs are borne by their national federation.
This year the Maltese contingent was made up as follows :
Sailing:
Sailors:
Gabriel Pace
Sean Borg
Thomas Zammit Tabona
Ella Fleri Soler
Abigail Fenech
Coach: Jean-Paul Fleri Soler
Team Leader: Richard Fenech
Total Competitors: 60
Islands participating: 16
Weather: Generally light and very unsettled
Programme: 9 races (over three days)
Total number of races: 8
Although the COJI organisers had confirmed that we could send an extra sailor with the boys to participate in these games just for experience, without counting his results, the technical commission refused the participation of young Thomas Zammit Tabona.
The final results of our sailors were:
Boys
Gabriel Pace 8th
Sean Borg 10th
Thomas Zammit Tabona DNS Girls
Ella Fleri Soler 4th
Abigail Fenech 12th
Team Event:
Boys: 4th
Girls: 3rd
Boys and Girls: 4th
Athletics
In athletics, we were represented by Andy Grech in the Long Jump and 100 metres and Stefanie Alden in the Triple Jump. Young Andy ran the 100 metres in 11.78, coming 14th out of 29 athletes, and jumped 6.09 metres, coming 16th out of 27 athletes. In the Triple Jump, Stefanie Alden recorded 10.07 metres, coming 10th overall.
The athletes were led by Valerie Farrugia.
MOC Director for Youth Envic Galea accompanied the contingent as chef de mission and also attended the Council Meeting and Congress of the COJI. At the congress, Guadaloupe gave details of their organisation for the 2008 COJI Games, and their representative also gave details of the investment that the French government will be making for these games.
The next time our young athletes will be participating will be at the European Youth Olympic Days in Belgrade in July, at which Malta will be represented by Athletics and Judo.