Long months of preparation and hard training will come to the test today when the first medals at the 2013 Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) will be at stake for the nine nations taking part in this week-long sporting festival hosted by Luxembourg.

The highlight of the day’s programme will be the athletics events at the Josy Barthel Stadium. They reach a climax late in the evening with the finals of the most popular races on the track – the men’s and women’s 100 metres.

In the sprints, Malta will be represented by 2011 silver medallist Diane Borg and Rebecca Camilleri, the current Malta champion over the short distance, while Luke Bezzina and Steve Camilleri will be involved in the men’s 100m dash.

Rebecca Camilleri will have a second chance to win a medal today as she competes in the long jump event along with Rebecca Saré while Giselle Camilleri is another podium contender in the 10,000m race final.

The build-up to today’s opening session in track and field was far from ideal as most of the athletes involved were not given the chance to try out the conditions at the Josy Barthel Stadium and, instead, were shifted to another venue.

That decision, taken as preparations were underway for last night’s opening ceremony, irked officials from most parti-cipating countries, including the Maltese Olympic Committee who even mulled a formal complaint at one point.

“It’s not acceptable that we were not given the opportunity to practise on the track with competition starting on Tuesday (today),” coach Mario Micallef told The Times of Malta, yesteday.

“Luxembourg officials informed us that they were looking into the problem and, hopefully, things will get back to normal soon.

“However, that might be too late for our first events and most of the athletes will now compete without having tried out this track.”

Meanwhile, individual competitions in judo also get under way this morning at Tramsschapp with Marcon Bezzina, Jeremy Saywell and Joanna Camilleri leading Malta’s charge for a medal.

Shooters Brian Galea and Jeffrey Pisani start their Trap competition, targeting the opening 75 clays while Etienne Bonello, Malta’s only cyclist in Luxem-bourg, will race in the time-trial event in Cessange.

In table tennis, the men’s and women’s selection will play their first matches from the team event, which is being held on a round robin format.

Our top player, Simon Gerada, was expected to join the group last night after completing a training camp in Poland with the club of his former Malta team-mate Andrzej Makowski.

Tennis also gets under way today with the first matches from the singles events. Our players in the tournament will be Matthew Asciak, Roseanne Dimech and Elaine Genovese.

Greta Zarb and Alison Borg play their first match in the beachvolley tournament against Monaco while gymnasts Peppijna Dalli, Adreana Zammit, Kirsty Caruana and Suzanne Buttigieg will be on the mat for the all-round competition at the Hall Sportif Belair.

Athletes in action today...

Athletics
100 metres (heats and finals): R. Camilleri, D. Borg, L. Bezzina, S. Camilleri.
400 metres (heats): K. Moore, M. Croker, J. Richard, L. Scerri.
Long jump (final): R. Camilleri, R. Sarè.
10,000 metres (women, final): Giselle Camilleri.

Beachvolley
Malta vs Monaco.
Malta players: G. Zarb, A. Borg.

Cycling
Time-trial: E. Bonello.

Gymnastics
Team event: P. Dalli, A. Zammit, S. Buttigieg, K. Caruana.

Judo
Individual events: M. Bezzina, J. Camilleri, V. Fraser, J. Saywell, M. Korchilava, I. Bezzina.

Shooting
Trap (first 75 clays of competition): B. Galea, J. Pisani.

Swimming
100 freestyle (heats and final): A. Chetcuti .

Table Tennis
Team event: S. Gerada, D. Bajada, V. Lucenkova, P. Fei, J. Pace.

Tennis
Men’s singles: M. Asciak.
Women’s singles: E. Genovese, R. Dimech.