Malta squad leave for Luxembourg tomorrow

A contingent of 10 archers, led by national coach John Schembri and Dr Raphael Patiniott, president of the Malta Archery Association, will be on their way to Luxembourg tomorrow to participate in the archery tournament for European small nations later on this month.

This is the fourth bi-annual event with the previous edition being hosted in Malta in May 2000.

John Collins, who is both a national and international FITA accredited judge, will also accompany the Maltese squad after being invited by the hosts to officiate in the tournament.

The Maltese Archery Association, hailing the largest contingent ever for such an event on foreign soil, will be figuring in all categories.

Since January they have been training at the association's outdoor range in Marsa on the 70-metre distance upon which these events are judged.

Following a qualification round of 72 arrows, a round robin elimination will be held.

The final elimination round is considered to be the most demanding and definitely most unforgiving as the archers have to maximise on their points and hit the gold, barely measuring 10cms, from a distance of 70 metres with only 12 arrows to spare and no room for errors.

The elimination process is made even tougher in case of a tie where elimination is eventually brought down on an arrow by arrow basis.

The intensive training programme went throughout the hot weather season despite the intense heat and adverse conditions.

However, the progress registered so far by the Maltese archers is encouraging not only due to the hard work being put in by all concerned but also by the scores obtained.

However, previous results in similar tournaments are simply not enough to forecast any results, let alone guarantee future achievements.

In the San Marino edition, held in 1998, Joe Ellul Sullivan, John Pace and Dion Buhagiar managed to win gold in the Male Compound Team event as well as landing gold and silver medals in the Male Compound Individual Divisions.

In the Malta tournament two years ago, Michelle Abela claimed silver in the Ladies Recurve category, Pace, once again, ended up on the podium by winning the bronze medal in the Male Compound, while Buhagiar, Kyvin Sant and Tony Falzon hit silver in the Male Compound Team event.

Air Malta are the main sponsors of the association.