After three years that the Youth Sector of the MOC concentrated on those National Federations with a youth programme, thanks to the assistance of Olympic Solidarity, on 23 May, the Malta Youth Team with 72 athletes and officials from nine sports – all part of the Olympic Solidarity MOC Youth programme – left for Palermo accompanied by Envic Galea, Youth Director, and his assistant Josephine Calleja, to participate in COJI Sicily 2011.
This was the largest contingent of youths ever to participate in the Island Games. Fourteen islands from the 20 members, participated in this year’s edition. The island members are Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Crete, Mayotte, The Azores, Balearic Islands, The Canaries, Cape Verde, Cyprus, Corfu, Faroe Islands, Guadalupe, Haiti, Jersey, Korcula, Madeira, Martinique, French Polynesia, Reunion, Isle of Wight and Malta.
The results were quite encouraging proving that Maltese youth sport is slowly taking a stronger structure, ensuring a good basis and a strong future for Maltese Sport.
In these Games, Malta won four Gold, five Silver and two Bronze medals, placing seventh overall. There were also many personal bests and broken National Records as you can see from the individual sports reports.
Athletics
The athletics contingent participating in the COJI games consisted of eight athletes; six girls and two boys. Considering the number of athletes who participated we can say that the results obtained and the prospects shown by our younger athletes were more than encouraging.
The main athlete of the contingent was Christian Luke Chetcuti who won a gold medal in the 3,000m as well as two bronze medals in the 800m and 1,500m respectively.
Thomas Farrugia came close to his personal best in the 200m with a time of 23.20 seconds, which earned him the sixth overall spot.
Nadine Aquilina, the only thrower of the contingent placed seventh in the shot with a throw of nine metres.
Thalia Massa and Ylenia Lapira managed to make it to the final eight in the 100m and then placed 7th and 8th in the final race.
Katya Vassallo made a good 13.46 seconds in the 100m heats and beat her personal best in the 200m with a time of 27.6 seconds which earned her the tenth place out of 18 participants.
Robyn Zammit, made an impressive time of 13.12 seconds in the 100m sprint.
Nicole Gatt made the 100m in a dashing 12.89 seconds, won the 400m in 58.26 seconds and the 800m in 2:19.20m which show an impressive prospect for the future of Maltese athletics.
The Maltese contingent also took part in the 4 x 100m relay with Katya Vassallo, Nicole Gatt, Ylenia Lapira and Thalia Massa managing to beat the supposedly stronger Sicilian, Sardinian and Martinique teams with an excellent time of 50.60 seconds, thus placing first.
Gymnastics
Gymnastics participated in the games with one boy and a team of three girls winning one gold, three silver and the second place cup for the team.
Isaac Camilleri performed on floor, vault and parallel bars gaining an overall 11th place.
The girl’s team made up of Kirsty Caruana, Tara Dalli and Adreana Zammit gave an excellent performance obtaining 1st place in Vault, Bars and Floor and 4th place in Beam with a total score of 94.050, placing 2nd just 0.05 points away from the gold.
As individual all rounders, Kirsty Caruana was awarded silver while Adreana Zammit placed 4th and Tara Dalli 9th. All three girls qualified for the final.
Kirsty Caruana won 1st place in floor and 2nd in Vault, and placed 5th in uneven bars and beam. Adreana Zammit won 2nd place on the uneven bars, 3rd in Vault, and placed 6th in floor, while Tara Dalli placed 8th in Beam.
Swimming
The swimming team was made up of four boys, Jeffrey Galea, Matthew Galea, Julian Harding and Raoul Stafrace and three girls, Michelle Azzopardi, Pia Grech and Amy Micallef
Amy Micallef won a Silver Medal in the women’s 200m Individual Medley with a time of 2:35.98. This time establishes a new Maltese age-group record.
Julian Harding, in the men’s 200m Individual Medley, despite finishing in 6th place, still managed to establish a Malta age-group record with a time of 2:23.41. This record replaces one of the oldest age-group records previously set in 1991 in Andorra.
Various other personal best times were set by most of the Maltese swimmers racing in Palermo.
Finally one cannot fail to mention the extremely high level of the swimming competition in Palermo where very often races were won with times better than the Maltese Open National records despite the fact that the boys were born 1995/1996 and the girls 1997/1998.
Sailing
The Sailing event in the Optimist sailing dinghy category was organised in the bay of Mondello, Palermo.
Malta was represented by Claudia Mule Stagno and Rebecca Briffa in the girls’ fleet and Thomas Bonello Ghio and Edward Fleri Soler in the boys’ fleet. The sailors were accompanied by Jean-Paul Fleri Soler as Coach and Anna Rossi as official.
A total of 9 races were scheduled however only six were completed due to the lack of wind. Forty two sailors from 14 islands were competing in this year’s event but the Maltese Team managed to place fourth in the overall standings.
Tennis
The tennis team was made up of two boys, Bernard Cassar Torreggiani and Raphael Sammut and two girls, Alexia Cassar and Giorgia Farrugia Sacco:
The girls lost to Martinique and unfortunately they could not play in the team event as Alexia injured herself and was out of the Games and so Giorgia had no doubles partner.
The boys’ team beat Mayotte and Jersey and lost in the semis to Sardinia. They were one set all against Azores losing 10-7 in the tie break for the bronze. The boys’ team placed fourth overall in the tournament,
Tennis Team Malta was nominated by Tennis Sicilia Organisers for Fairplay award over all teams
Table-tennis
The table tennis tournament was made out of teams, doubles and singles. Malta participated with a team of four boys, James Camilleri, Luca Minuti, Andrea Portelli and Adem Zouari
Teams event was composed of five countries per group. The boys took part for the 1st time scoring a good win against Corsica, a close loss against Madeira and two other losses though they played well.
In the doubles the boys beat Mayotte but were eventually eliminated by Cyprus who ended up winning the gold medal.
In the singles tournament they were also put in groups and this time the team registered a win in each group.
The table tennis team ended up in seventh position overall notwithstanding a penalty due to the lack of a Malta female team. Andrea Portelli the No. 1 player had a very full week. Luca Minuti, who substituted the fourth team member at the last minute proved himself by winning 60% of his matches beating the first and second players of Corsica, Madeira and Mayotte
Volleyball
This was the first time in its history that MVA had U-15 Youth team and the first international experience for eleven players out of the twelve girls who formed the squad.
All the games of Group B were played in the Dalla Chiesa Pavillion in Partinico.
Malta played four games, twice each against Martinique and Isola d’Elba, with the latter ending the winner of the group.
Malta ended up in third place in the group and in ninth place overall. However the performance of the team, which had a relatively young age average, was encouraging and was the result of good teamwork and fighting spirit. They were very near to a win in a couple of sets.
Weightlifting
The Malta Weightlifting Association participated in the games with a team made up of Nicole Gatt, Destiny Vella Busuttil and Rodmar Pulis. They were accompanied by Jesmond Caruana, Mark Farrugia and Stephen Borg.
It was the first International experience for the two young female lifters who competed in the first competition of the games. Gatt managed to gain 105 points and Destiny Vella Busuttil gained 107 points passing her rival Piga Emiliana of Sardinia.
In the Male Competition Pulis managed to break another ten national records in the youths 77kg class as well as in the juniors. The 77kg class was fought out amongst six lifters and Pulis managed to earn second place, with a total of 211kg and 267 points. Pulis managed to pass his rival Scaglia Rosaio who also participated in the World Youth Championships. The Category was won by Antonino Pizzolato from Sicily with a total of 236kg.
Rugby
The rugby team played two games on Friday, winning against Sardegna with a score of 44 – 0 but losing to Corsica 7 – 17. On Saturday the team lost both games against Sicily and Elba, 12 – 34, 5 – 31 respectively.
In general it was a very positive experience for the boys and coaches alike. Despite some crucial refereeing decisions, the boys played with an excellent sense of fair play, impressive discipline and team work. The performance was negatively influenced by the ankle injury sustained by Julian Galea, who had to be replaced in the first match.
The team ended up in fourth place but worth noting is the fact that the Corsican team (the tournament winners) gave the Maltese team a standing ovation as they entered the restaurant on Saturday evening claiming they deserved to finish second.