Hectic day as eight sport make first showing

The second day of the Malta GSSE is set to be a hectic one indeed for most of the athletes and officials here for the Games as competition from eight of the ten disciplines contested gets off today.

With the squash tournament for singles reaching its second day and judo making its first showing tomorrow, the focus will switch to the most popular sport in such multi-sport festivals - athletics and swimming - where the first medals will be won. Competition, meanwhile, gets underway in tennis, table-tennis, basketball, volleyball, shooting and sailing.

The Bidnija ranges this morning will be hosting shooters for the opening 75 clays of the Trap competition, which comes to a close tomorrow with another 50 clays ahead of the barrage final.

Frans Pace and Noel Attard are Malta's representatives here after winning the right to join the squad following a series of selection shoots.

The Malta Shooting Federation considers the Trap competition an arena where our shooters could do well and finish among the medal winners. Two years ago, Pace was the author of a remarkable comeback which saw him forcing his way to the second highest step on the winners' rostrum after a rather poor opening day score by his own standards.

The main threat for the Maltese will once more come from the San Marino shooters who again have defending champion Francesco Amici in their ranks.

The sailing team, under the careful guide of Jerome Mainemare, Jean-Paul Fleri Soler and Anton Valentino, held its practice races yesterday and all went according to plan. The Maltese will start their commitments in all three categories contested at St Paul's Bay - Optimist, Laser Radial and Laser Standard.

The Optimist team will be composed of Matthew Fleri Soler, Karl Cremona, Christoph Podesta, Simon Psaila and the Borg brothers - Benji and Sean. The Laser Radial squad includes Peter Valentino, Simon Aquilina, Alfred Fenech, Andrew Selvagi, Aaron Podesta and Paul Debono.

The opening Laser Standard races will be held in the afternoon with Mario Aquilina, Malta's sailor in the Sydney Olympics, joined by John Tabone, Neil Borg, Adrian Gauci Borda, James Xuereb and David Dalli.

The local tennis players will be in action in the first rounds of the singles events.

National champion Mark Schembri and Marcus Delicata will be playing in the men's competition while Lisa Camenzuli and Rosanne Dimech will be involved in the women's draw.

Both basketball national teams will be in action today at the University Sports Complex.

Santino Coppa's girls will be involved in the second match of the day when they host Iceland at 11 a.m. The other match from the round-robin tournament, at 9 a.m., sees Cyprus taking on Luxembourg.

The men's team, coached by Joe Galea and Antonio De Torres Moreno, will be involved in the last match of the day, also against Iceland, from Group B. The Maltese coaches will be hoping that Maltese-Australian Mark Micallef will inspire the team to a win that will put the them on course for a place in the semi-finals.

Gozitan experience

Competition also kicks off at the Victoria Sports Complex in Gozo where the national team plays its first matches from the table-tennis team event.

Malta will be banking on the talent of the Gerada brothers, Simon and Wayne, to seriously challenge for a medal. Edward Baldacchino is the other member in the men's squad.

Andorra are Malta's first opponents in the team event.

In the women's competition, Johanna Grech and Christine Cassar Torreggiani will be bidding to keep their place on the podium, when, along with Diane Saydon they figure in the women's competition. Two years ago Grech and Cassar Torreggiani returned with a bronze after the competition in San Marino.

The volleyball tournament also gets underway with the women's team, winners of a bronze medal in San Marino, making their debut today at 9 p.m. against Iceland at the Cottonera Sports Complex.

The men's team, on their part, play their opening group match against Andorra at the Corradino Pavilion at 8 p.m.