Curtain raised on Multipurpose Sports Hall

The much-awaited University Multipurpose Sports Hall was inaugurated yesterday evening by Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami.

This modern sporting facility has been designed to cater for various disciplines, including basketball, volleyball, handball, gymnastics and martial arts.

Completed at an estimated cost of Lm600,000, the Multipurpose Sports Hall has a seating capacity of 1,000 spectators and will be used for the first time in next week's FISEC Games.

Situated only a few metres away from the Tal-Qroqq National Pool, the new multipurpose hall is the latest addition to the University Sports Complex that also comprises four squash courts, fitness centre, functional diagnostic laboratory, physiotherapy clinic, two five-a-side football artificial pitches, the Malta Olympic Committee headquarters and several other offices in use by diverse sports associations.

The most distinctive features of the new facility are the space-frame roof structure and the hall's floor made of parquet.

"This complex is the jewel in the crown of local facilities. In a few days, the Multipurpose Sports Hall will host the FISEC Games which will bring together around 1,000 participants. It is thanks to these high-level facilities that we have been able to bring to Malta such competitions which also befit the local economy," Jesmond Mugliett, the Parliamentary Secretary for Youth and Sport, said yesterday.

Yesterday's opening ceremony was also attended by the Rector of University Professor Roger Ellul Micallef and Louis Galea, the Minister of Education.

The Sports Complex at the University will be managed by a company to be set up jointly by the government and the University of Malta.