Malta and the Med. Games

Shooter William Chetcuti achieved another podium finish in a high-profile event to give Malta a solitary medal at the Mediterranean Games that were held in Almeria, Spain.

Of the 21 participating nations, only tiny Monaco and Lebanon left Spain without a medal.

Chetcuti is fast becoming a household name at such Games.

The Malta Olympic Committee, in close collaboration with the Malta Shooting Federation, need to embark on a serious three-year programme that will expose the young shooter to as many international competitions as possible to boost Chetcuti's chances of tasting Olympic success in Beijing in 2008.

Apart from Chetcuti, Malta never really stood any chances of winning more medals in Almeria although some gave Carol Galea an outside chance of a place on the podium in the half marathon.

It is extremely difficult to gauge our athletes' performance at these Games for the simple reason that the Mediterranean Games are a platform for some of Europe's best homegrown talent. There were indeed interesting contests between strong athletes from Italy, France, Spain, Greece and Turkey.

A proper evaluation of Malta's showing should take into account the results obtained by Cyprus, Monaco and San Marino, three other small European nations competing at the Mediterranean Games.

While Monaco failed to get its name on the medals' list, San Marino managed a silver medal in shooting whereas Cyprus landed an envious seven-medal haul including gold and silver in the men's high jump.

Ionnau Kyriacos and Constantinou Ionnais dominated the event in which 12 athletes participated. The two Cypriots also won gold and silver in Andorra. While Kyriacos cleared 2.18m in Andorra, he managed 2.24 in Almeria whereas his colleague improved his performance by six centimetres (2.15m/2.21m). The Cypriots are definitely claiming a rightful place among Europe's elite in selected sports.

This is a policy Malta must enforce if it really wants to bridge the gap with other nations like Luxembourg, Iceland and Cyprus. It is exactly what other larger countries are doing. Take Albania for instance. The contingent managed a total of six medals, five of which were won in weightlifting.

Ever since Australian sports consultant Kevin Thompson came to Malta some four years ago, policymakers have been congruent in calling for a uniform policy on sports administration and allocation of funds.

Thompson's voluminous report clearly spelt this out but for the past three years or so, this report has been absorbing dust on some top shelf inside our administrators' offices.

On paper, there is a consensus that Malta should focus its limited resources on selected disciplines. Common sense dictates that this should be done on individual sports.

With the exception of waterpolo, it is very hard to believe that Malta will gain credible results in team sports at the Mediterranean or Commonwealth Games. Even so, our waterpolo team is no match for Italy, Spain, Greece and Croatia.

Our Olympic football team was a surprise choice for the Mediterranean Games. With only nine nations sending a football team to these Games, the MOC's decision to send a team was at best bold.

Our boys did manage a satisfactory outing against Spain but in the second match, they lost heavily 5-0 to Turkey. For fairness sake, our two opponents in the group eventually made it to the final but the fact remains that our boys bowed out of the tournament with no points and no goals.

The focus should be firmly set on individual sport. This time around there was no place for archers, fencers and weightlifters in the Malta contingent.

There are some dedicated archers and fencers who deserved to be nominated for the games. In such disciplines, it is very hard to establish an adequate minimum qualifying standard as progress in competition boils down to the luck of the draw.

Nobody expects an archer, a fencer, a weightlifter or a freestyle wrestler to go to these Games and win a medal although for the record, Abraham Vassallo beat a Spaniard in the 84kg freestyle wrestling category.

Serious planning

I will once again stress the need for the MOC to take the bull by its horns and prepare a handful of athletes for the Pescara 2009 Games. Chetcuti is a sure bet but we also need to nurture those athletes in their late teens who will be able to perform to high standards in individual events in four years' time.

With the next edition of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, it is highly probable that the MOC will travel to the land down under with a token contingent.

Pescara is a different story. We have ample time to get our preparations on track and national federations and association would do well to request a dossier from the MOC and the KMS on the selection process for the next edition of the Mediterranean Games and which federations will be earmarked to send athletes for competition.

We need to act now as four years go by in a jiffy come 2009, we will have to dig deep into our creative resources to conjure a credible-enough excuse to atone for our shortcomings in strategic sports planning.