Five athletes and two teams were the gold medal winners in yesterday evening’s Sports Awards night organised by the Maltese Olympic Committee at the Excelsior Grand Hotel.
The five athletes are Mark Spiteri (tenpin bowling), Marcon Bezzina and Joanna Camilleri (judo), Sean Borg and Benji Borg (sailing). Also winning gold were the women’s Squash team – Theresa Camilleri, Annabelle Olivieri Monroe and Johanna Rizzo – and the Elusive Sailing team – Arthur Podesta, Maya Podesta, Aaron Podesta, Christoph Podesta, Mark Vella, Paul Apap Bologna, Paul Borg Cardona, Concetto Costa and Ben Robinson.
The other awards went as follows:
Silver medals (9)
Darren Gilford, Charlene Attard, Francesca Xuereb and the 4x100m Athletics relay team consisting of Mario Bonello, Rashid Chouhal, Darren Gilford and Nicolai Portelli, Ella Fleri Soler (Sailing), Angela Galea (Swimming), Yu Wang (Table-Tennis), the Rugby ladies team consisting of Beverie Sultana, Amanda Cassar, Charlene Vassallo, Victoria Aquilina, Charmaine Gauci, Esther Farrugia, Colette Abela, Tessabelle Sultana, Marion Azzopardi, Dorianne Borg and the Maltese Falcon team consisting of Martin Scicluna, Matthew Scicluna, Matthew Xuereb, Martin Borg Nicholas, Lawrence Vento, Jason Galea, Harold Mallia, Des McWilliams, Andy Knowles and Nicholas Sammut.
Bronze medals (9)
Andrzej Makowski and Simon Gerada (Men’s table-tennis team), Diane Biorg, Therese Mallia, Lara Scerri and Charlene Attard (Athletics 4x100m), Martina Xuereb and Nicolai Portelli (athletics), Madeleine Scerri (Swimming), Philip Caruana Turner (Gymastics), Evgeny Ulanov, Kriss Law, Brent Law and Jerome Zammit (Men’s Judo team), Gilbert Agius, Ian Azzopardi, Roderick Bajada, Etienne Barbara, Daniel Bogdanovic, Roderick Briffa, Ian Ciantar, Andrew Cohen, Luke Dimech, Justin Haber, George Mallia, Claude Mattocks, Michael Mifsud, Josef Mifsud, Mario Muscat, Jamie Pace, Peter Pullicino, Brian Said, Keven Sammut, Terence Scerri, Andre Schembri, Gareth Sciberras, Kenneth Scicluna, Steve Wellman, Ivan Woods and Udo Nwoko, as well as Derek Conti, Massimo Cremona, Samuel Bartolo, Mark Gauci and Stefan Pace (national table-football team).
IOC Trophy 2007
The Maltese Olympic Committee has unanimously decided to give this award for Sport and Promotion of Olympism to its former president, Mr Justice Gino Camilleri who, among other things during his presidency, was instrumental in the staging of the Games for European Small States in Malta in 1993.
Hall of Fame
Another six persons have been inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. These were also announced during yesterday’s ceremony.
They are Dr George Abela, former MFA president, Peter Bonello, former boardsailor, Louis Borg, former Basketball Association president and former Maltese Olympic Academy Director, now president of the Malta Handball Association, Joe Cilia, former Rabat, Valletta and Malta footballer, Bertie Muscat, a former ASA president and secretary and MOC general secretary, and who is the only Maltese to be honoured with the Olympic Order, as well as sports journalist and administrator Benny Pace, founder of the national sporting contests on these islands.
MOC president Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco congratulated all the award winners and said these Awards had become one of the major success events of the MOC.
He elaborated on the events in which the MOC took part or which it organised during the past year and thanked the athletes and the various officials from all the federations for their continued commitment to sport.
He also thanked Malta International Airport and AirMalta for the renewal of their contracts with the MOC for a further two years adding that such support allows the MOC to continue to monitor and prepare athletes throughout the year including development schemes and long term planning for 2008 and 2009, especially with regard to Malta’s participation at next year’s Beijing Olympic Games, the next edition of the Games for European Small States in Cyprus in 2009 and the Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Italy, also in 2009.
The Minister for Education, responsible for Sport, Dr Louis Galea, also congratulated the athletes and personalities receiving the awards, and to their respective associations.
He said such awards brought about much deserved satisfaction as well as responsibility. “Sports has already given them a lot and they will continue to plough back into society benefits received through their exemplary role models and for the promotion of sport for what it could really be – a positive social medium with potential huge benefits to society,” he said.