The Malta Amateur Athletic Association will, for the second time, be participating in the European Team Championships (3rd League) as the Malta team.

Anthony Chircop, Athletics Malta president, yesterday named a 28-strong squad of athletes to make the trip to Reykjavik, Iceland, to participate in these championships, which are being held this Saturday and Sunday 19.

One may recall that last year, for the first time, when this competition was held in Malta, the local association took part with a team of 27 athletes.

The other countries/teams taking part in this league are Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Israel, Cyprus, Georgia, Iceland, Luxemburg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Small States of Europe and Malta.

Most of the Maltese athletes who took part last year will again be taking part in Iceland. The team is composed of the following athletes:

Women – Charlene Attard, Diane Borg, Martina and Francesca Xuereb, Lisa Bezzina, Giselle Camilleri, Monalisa Camilleri, Rebecca Camilleri, Alessandra Pace, Celine Pace, Chloe Gambin and Antonella Chouhal.

Men - Karl Farrugia, Owen Camilleri, Steve Camilleri, Neil Brimmer, Christian Luke Chetcuti, Mark Herrera, Jonathan Balzan, Rashid Chouhal, Ian Paul Grech, Andy Grech, Grech Gerald, Edward Grech, Mario Mifsud, Jeremy Borg, Kevin Galea, and Matthew Croker.

The team will be under the charge of MAAA Treasurer Maurice Spiteri, who will be assisted by MAAA Council Members Ms Valerie Farrugia and Pierre Xuereb as well as the two coaches Mario Bonello and Mario Micallef.

Chircop yesterday also congratulated the team of athletes who did the association proud in winning four gold, six silver and four bronze medals in the Games for European Small States in Liechtenstein.

He added that the athletes have confirmed their improvement by achieving higher standards, registering new national records and a number of personal bests.

He also thanked the coaches and officials who worked hard to achieve those results.

He added: “These same athletes (with the exception of Kevin Moore, James D’Alfonso and young Nicole Gatt, who certainly qualifies technically, but is ineligible as she is too young) together with some more athletes, will now proceed to Iceland for the European Team Championships.”

Chircop also said they had received no financial support from the government, the Maltese Olympic Committee and the Maltese Council of Sport to send the team to Iceland. “However, we must thank European Athletics for displaying total trust in our administrative capabilities for good governance and audit ability. He revealed that the bulk of the expenses to send the full team to Iceland was due to the association’s endeavours and some help from the European body.”

The Athletics Malta boss said that the Iceland Championship will be a true test of the progress made by its athletes in recent years. “Our main aim in Iceland will be to maintain our ninth place of last year, though we have hopes of taking Malta further up the rung in international competition such as this one,” he added.

IAAF Certificate

for Marsa Track

The Athletics Malta president also revealed yesterday that the association had recently received the necessary certificate which certifies that the “track and field facilities, implements and competition equipment at the Matthew Micallef Athletic Stadium meet all technical requirements under IAAF Rule 140 for the relevant competitions.”

This certificate was sent by the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF).

Under IAAF rules, Athletics Malta can now host any international competition except for the Olympic Games and the competitions of the World Athletics Series. It also means that the IAAF will now be able to recognise any world or European record that would be established at the Marsa Stadium.

Chircop said it took almost six months of planning, meetings and hard work to upgrade the track facilities to the required standard and they were indeed grateful to a lot of people including the team of surveyors from the Ministry of Resources and Rural Affairs.

He also thanked the Maltese Council for Sport, particularly Bernard Vassallo, its Chairman, for financially helping the association to achieve this milestone.

He added: “The certification of the track facilities should actually have taken place way back in 2003 when the track was resurfaced for the games of the Small States of Europe but somehow the actual application was never submitted to the IAAF.

“To upgrade the track and its facilities in preparation for the hosting of the European Team Championships that were held in Malta last year, and to be able to submit an application for the certification of the track, the MAAA had to spend around €80,000,” he added.

Marsa Sports Complex

Chircop also spoke about an offer from the office of the Parliamentary Secretary for Sports to be involved in the project of the development of the whole Marsa Sports Complex being planned by the Government.

The proposal as sent to the association said: “The investor shall put at the disposal of the Malta Amateur Athletic Association a number (to be defined) of free memberships for the use of all the facilities within the multi sport high performance training and research centre.”

In return “ the MAAA binds itself to provide the operator of the multi sport high performance training and research centre and his clients, the free use of all the facilities within the Matthew Micallef St John Athletics Stadium and its precincts.”

Among other conditions, the offer also included that “the cost to upgrade the current facilities within the Matthew Micallef St John Athletics Stadium will be carried by the investor while the MAAA will carry 50% of the costs to maintain and redevelop the facilities till the end of the current lease agreement.”

Chircop said that the MAAA replied that they were prepared to lease to the would be investor or developer part of the warm-up area, which would be in line with the “public-private partnership” which the Parliamentary Secretary for Sports is publicly advocating.

However, he added, this policy contradicts a standard clause, included in the agreement that sports associations managing a government owned facility, have in their contract prohibiting them from entering into some form of partnership with private entities or individuals to manage the same facilities.

Here he appealed to the Parliamentary Secretary for Sports to reconsider his decision not to allow the associations or clubs to have anyone managing the same facilities. He maintained that this applied to all other associations or clubs who have similar contracts of lease. He maintained that development can only be made by other technical persons from outside the associations. “For example, Athletics Malta does not have the knowhow of managing a clinic which we need to have at the Marsa track. Neither do we have people who can manage a gym which is also essential for the training of our athletes, and so on,” he added.