MOC announces list of 26 nominees for 2005 Sports Awards...

New class to reward outstanding featsThe Malta Olympic Committee Sports Awards have become a popular appointment in the local sport calendar. They provide a fitting way for the governing body of elite sport to recognise achievements by Maltese athletes during the outgoing year.

In the past three editions the winners were classified in three categories - the gold, silver and bronze awards. This year, the MOC is introducing a new category, the Platinum Award, for the Awards' Presentation Ceremony, to be held at the Dolmen Hotel Resort on December 8.

MOC Director of Sport Pippo Psaila explained that the Platinum Award will be given to those athletes who attained an outstanding performance in international competition during the previous year.

"The MOC Awards are an expression of gratitude from the sporting fraternity to those athletes who excelled in the past year in either the GSSE, the Mediterranean Games, continental or intercontinental championships," Psaila said. "Until last year, sporting feats were divided into three categories - gold, silver and bronze awards.

"However, the progress of some local athletes has prompted us to launch a new category, the Platinum Award.The purpose of this new prize is to honour outstanding results in the international arena. This year, we had more than one athlete who have satisfied the criteria for the Platinum Award but you have to wait until the presentations' night to learn the identity of the first-ever winners."

Psaila said that the nominees for the awards were determined after a long process in which all federations affiliated with the MOC were invited to propose their candidates.

The MOC Director of Sport said the next step for the organising committee was to analyse the credentials of each candidate before the final selection was made.

The list, which was released yesterday, is made up of 26 nominees from 10 different sport. It will come as no surprise that William Chetcuti is on the list of nominees.

The talented Double Trap shooter was not present to receive his certificate of nomination at the MOC premises in Tal-Qroqq yesterday due to his commitments in the World Cup Final in Dubai.

Other notable nominees are long-distance runner Carol Walsh (formerly Galea), the 4x100m athletics relay teams, shooters Frans Pace and Emanuel Grima, Malta snooker champion Alex Borg, 2005 GSSE swimming gold medallist Angela Galea, cyclist Roderick Muscat and table football player Massimo Cremona.

Psaila then diverted his focus to the Hall of Fame which will again see the induction of more athletes, officials and administrators who did Malta proud during their careers.

"This year, more personalities from the Maltese sporting fraternity will earn a place in our Hall of Fame," Psaila said.

"The names of the new Hall of Fame inductees will be revealed during the presentation ceremony."

The ceremony will be broadcast live on Education Channel 22 after the latter signed a partnership agreement with the MOC. The management of Channel 22 have agreed to broadcast a series of sports programmes over the coming months.

The nominees...

¤ Athletics - 4x100m men (J. Mallia, R. Chouhal, M. Bonello, D. Gilford); 4x400m men (I. Borg, M. Bonello, K. Farrugia, N. Portelli); 4x100m women (C. Attard, D. Borg, T. Mallia, L. Scerri); C. Attard, L. Bezzina, M. Bonello, R. Camilleri, R. Chouhal, D. Gilford, N. Portelli, C. Walsh, M. Xuereb.

¤ Cycling - R. Muscat; ¤ Judo - M. Bezzina; ¤ Shooting - W. Chetcuti, E. Grima; F. Pace; ¤ Snooker - A. Borg, Snooker team (A. Borg, J. Grech, S. Zammit); ¤ Squash - women's national team (L. Said, A. Olivieri Munro, J. Rizzo, S. Aquilina, R. Pace Grima). ¤ Swimming - A. Galea; ¤ Table Football - M. Cremona; ¤ Table Tennis - S. Gerada, A. Makowski; ¤ Bowling - K. Arpa, M. Spiteri.