More investment needed to maintain progress

What a week it was. The 10th Games of the Small States of Europe are now over. Saturday's closing ceremony at Marsa saw the Andorra officials taking over the Olympic Flag as focus now shifts to the 2005 Games.

Without doubt, the Games here were another successful story for the Malta Olympic Committee and the organising committee. Our governing body of sport will be looking back at last week's events with pride as the Maltese athletes reached unprecedented heights.

Since the inception of the Games, way back in 1985, Malta had never performed so admirably in the eight-nation event. Two years ago, in San Marino, the MOC contingent returned home with a best ever performance in the GSSE after landing 35 medals.

In the Malta Games, our representatives again produced the goods to fulfil the MOC's dream of setting new marks - 44 medals won, a record, and a fourth placing in the medals table.

If one takes an in-depth look at the results scored in various venues, there were several notable performances that stand above the rest.

Among these were the record medal tallies at the Bidnija shooting range and the Marsa track and field stadium, the incredible gold medal won by the women's basketball team, the fighting spirit of swimmer Angela Galea and the superb displays from the young Maltese sailors and squash players.

But equally, there were also some other disappointing results coming from table-tennis, men's basketball and volleyball and tennis as well.

As is the norm, the MOC will draw its own conclusions on the Games and although there are more positives to take heart from, there's still a long list of prerequisites to look at for our sport to improve and put an even better show next time round.

One has to admit that since Iceland '97, our athletes' performances have improved consistently. Thousands of liri were forked out and the government has given its financial support to add more infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the mentality of most of our athletes also seems to be shifting to a professional one. Their preparation is more focused on an extended life in sport rather than a particular occasion.

But there are several aspects on which we must lay more emphasis to maintain our consistency in the development of sport.

The most important factor which the MOC and its member associations should work on is to increase the number of participation all-round. To achieve other success at GSSE level, or even higher, more youngsters have to be attracted to take up sport more seriously but they should be provided with adequate facilities to improve their talent.

Swimming is by far the sport which is most struggling in this area. Suffice to say that for the past two GSSE, the MOC fielded the smallest contingent from all participating countries. This was more evident in the men's category.

Rigorous training

Training in this particular sport is one of most demanding around. In Malta, only Attila Selmeci's 'small gang' seems willing to practise more than once a day all year round.

Our swimmers are being hampered by lack of training space at the National Pool as, in Selmeci's own words, most of the time they have to share the lanes with waterpolo players, triathlon athletes, foreign teams and the public.

Besides, it is not the first time that swimmers find themselves training in the early hours of the day in waters not heated to the required temperatures. The construction of an indoor pool is a necessity here.

In my opinion, all seven national squad members have done miracles in the build-up to the GSSE. Before adequate training facilities are available we cannot aspire to build a stronger team, competitive enough to win more than just three honours in a sport where there are more than 90 medals at stake.

Shooting is another area where investment in youth is really needed.

Here, the argument is different than swimming. Malta is turning out to be one of the leading GSSE nations in this sport. But to maintain constant success we have to build a solid foundation in the youth sector.

Unfortunately, our laws only allow shooters over the age of 18 to practise the sport.

Inevitably, this scenario is only keeping away from our ranges a good number of youngsters with a great talent that cannot be exploited due to an outdated legislation. A white paper on a new law is already in store but it has yet to be approved. Meanwhile, the Shooting Federation is waiting impatiently to start supervising young beginners during training at Bidnija.

Sailing has done really well in the GSSE with Mario Aquilina and 13-year-old Benji Borg clinching gold at St Paul's Bay.

Last week, Malta confirmed its status as one of the strongest countries in this sphere. Yet, despite the ideal weather, almost all year round, our sailors still lack adequate training facilities.

The federation has long been working on the creation of a training centre. With so much resources readily-available in this area, it's up to the MOC and the authorities to give a helping hand to the federation to realise this dream.

The construction of such facility would not only improve the standard of our sailors but it would also be beneficial to the country as various representations from Nordic countries would opt to train here in our mild climatic conditions during the wintry months.

The sailing federation, like other member associations, are also facing a long wait to see whether foreign coaches, whose contract runs out this month, will again be engaged to start another cycle.

It's important that investment in top quality foreign coaches is continued. Everyone saw the transformation the women's national team had since Santino Coppa took over. The shrewd Italian coach turned a modest outfit into a GSSE gold medal winner.

People like Coppa guarantee instant improvement besides a sterling contribution to the development of our coaching sector in basketball. Maltese coaches can learn a great deal from their more experienced foreign colleagues.

Coppa, like judo's Alfredo Monti, Francesco Castellani, of shooting, Paul Lake, of squash, and sailing technical director Jerome Mainemare, are all respected coaches outside our shores.

Financial backing

Minister for Youth and the Arts Jesmond Mugliett and the government should be praised for a huge financial backing in recent years.

Mr Mugliett, like MOC president Lino Farrugia Sacco and Director of Sport Pippo Psaila, are very actively involved in sport and considered by many as the ideal men in their job.

However, at times it seems that our best is simply not enough to offer a bigger challenge. Comparing budgets allocated to sport, one notes that our country is still miles away from Cyprus, Iceland and Luxembourg.

Ways of generating more funds must be found to heighten the momentum and keep the progress going. It would not be a bad idea if we had to follow the UK example and allocate funds from a national lottery to the sports administrations.

No doubt, the Malta 2003 Games are set to leave behind them a huge legacy in sport. The great support and sizable attendances witnessed last week in most venues are a clear sign of the enthusiasm the Games generated after some intensive promotion.

This is the right time for the MOC to benefit from this fine hour and start working on new plans that can help our athletes reach higher targets not only in Andorra in 2005 but maybe in bigger scale events.