The president of the Malta Amateur Athletics Association, Anthony Chircop, has been elected as a member of the European Athletics Development Committee.

The election was held earlier this month during the European Athletics Congress in London which was attended by 240 delegates.

During the same meeting, Hanzjorg Wirz, President of European Athletics for the last eight years was contested for the Presidency by Arne Hansen (Norway) but Wirz was again elected President by 28 to 22 votes.

Chircop contested for a seat on the European Athletics Development Committee where the delegates had to elect four members out of 14. The MAAA president, together with Nick Davies of Ireland, obtained the highest number of votes.

European Athletics

Convention 2012

Following the successful hosting of the EA Calendar Conference in October 2007, (which had brought no less than 320 foreign delegates to Malta), the MAAA decided to again try to host the EA Convention (as it is now called) again in Malta in October 2012.

Malta’s bid beat that of Estonia by 26 votes to 16.

The MAAA prepared its successful bid with the cooperation and assistance of Ms Nadine Brincat from the Tourism Authority.

During the Convention, there will be a discussion on the development of athletics, as well as a few hours dedicated to formulate the programme for the season.

Malta International

Open Meeting

The Malta International Open meeting is being held on Saturday at the Matthew Micallef St John Stadium in Marsa.

In spite of the political turmoil in the North African countries, which in the past years have sent teams and contributed to the success of this now traditional annual meeting, the MAAA had decided to go ahead and hold this meeting as usual.

Such a meeting provides local athletes who are preparing for the forthcoming international meetings of the GSSE and the European Team Championships, with a good standard of competition which hopefully would enable them to obtain the necessary Minimum Qualifying Standards.

The locals are being prepared for foreign coaches – Antonio La Guardia from Italy for the sprints, Marian Prezbuchy of Slovakia for the high jump and Paul Wilson from the UK for the throws.

Chircop said yesterday that the number of foreign athletes will not be as strong as in previous years, but the standard of the visiting athletes who will be coming this year is much higher than usual.

In the long distance events there will be EA Moulins who has a PB of 14:40 for the 5,000m, Maxine Le Barre with a time of 14:50 again for the 5,000m, Julien Barriol in the 3000m ( 3:44 ) and Paul Fort who has a PB of 3:54 also in the 1500m event. All these athletes are from France.

It will be interesting to see Alessandro Cavallaro of Italy who has a time of 10.33 for the 100m and 20.42 for the 200m running against British athlete Deji Tobias 100m 10.43. Tobias is training under the expert direction of John Regis.

Again from the UK there will be some very good athletes in the throwing events, among them Iain Swall (U-20) with a PB of 48.42 in the discus, Lincoln Scott (U-20) with a PB of 15.48m in the shot and Duncan Bell (U-20) who also has a good throw of 44.15m in the discus.

Maltese athletes in

International Meeting

All the leading Maltese athletes are expected to participate in Saturday’s meeting. These will include a number of athletes who have already achieved the MQS for this year’s GSSE.

These are Rebecca Camilleri (Long Jump), Diane Borg (100m), Martina Xuereb (200m), Francesca Xuereb (400m) and Lisa Maria Camilleri (10,000m). Other athletes who have this year left a good impression and who will be seeking to achieve the GSSE MQS are Karl Farrugia (100m) and Mark Herrera (1500m). Good performances are also expected from the Men and Women’s 4x100m relay teams.

In all, the MAAA expects between 60 and 80 local athletes to take part, not just to try and qualify for the Liechtenstein Games, but also in view of the European Team Championships to be held in Iceland.

So far Rebecca Camilleri (long jump), Diane Borg (100m), Martina Xuereb (200m), Francesca Xuereb (400m) and Lisa Marie Camilleri (10,000m) have obtained their MQSs for the GSSE. However, the MAAA is expecting around 14 athletes in all to obtain the MQS for the Games, among them the relay teams in the men’s and women’s 4 x 100 and 4 x 400.

World Athletics Day

competition for schools

On 3 and 4 May the MAAA will organise a track and field competition for schoolchildren born between 1991 and 1995. This competition which is known as World Athletics Day, is supported by IAAF and is organised by all the IAAF member federations in line with IAAF’s aim to make athletics the leading sport in schools.

European Team

Championships 2011 – Iceland

Last year the MAAA not only organised a successful edition of the European Team Championship (3rd League), but for the first time in its history participated with a full team in this competition. Although this year’s Championship is being held in Iceland it is again the intention of the MAAA to participate with a full team of around 30 athletes.

Chircop said this was an ambitious venture by the association at a cost of around €15,000.

The MAAA is hoping that its team can achieve the honourable result achieved in last year’s competition when it placed ninth out of a total of 15 teams.

Open Day

An Athletics Open Day is being organised next Sunday between 9.30am and noon. It will be held at the Marsa Athletic Track and the purpose of this event is to attract children between the ages of 5-14 to the sport of athletics.

During the event, children will be guided through a number of athletic events by various national and international coaches, all of whom are experts in their event, who will be supported by a number of elite athletes.

At 11am a Fun Team event involving all the children attending the Open Day will be held. This Fun Event is based on the IAAF Guidelines for the promotion of athletics amongst youngsters. Parents do not need to send in any applications but can turn up with their children on the day.

The MAAA will be preparing an interactive meeting with parents to explain to them the benefits of sports, particularly athletics, for their children.