Special Feature

Malta in the San Marino 2001 GSSE

 San Marino 2001 ... the most successful performance ever

The 9th edition of the Games of the Small States of Europe, which was held in San Marino came to an end on Saturday night with the closing ceremony at the Piazza Grande at Borgo Maggiore during which the Olympic flag was passed over to MOC president Lino Farrugia Sacco as Malta will be hosting the next games in 2003.

Without any doubt, it was the most successful performance so far for Malta. Malta won a total of 35 medals: 7 gold, 12 silver and 16 bronze. The largest number of medals in one particular edition was 31 - in the sixth edition which was held in Malta in 1993. The local athletes had never won so much gold and silver medals. In the last edition of the games in Liechtenstein, Malta had won just 20 medals - 4 gold, 8 silver and 8 bronze.

This result is not pure coincidence but the fruit of the hard work of the Malta Olympic Committee who left no stone unturned in order to present in San Marino a team of athletes who are able to compete on a high level. Besides devising programmes for elite athletes and other promising youngsters, the MOC started searching for Maltese athletes based abroad, or athletes with Maltese descent, in order to represent Malta in these games. Seven athletes - three in judo, two in athletics, one in table-tennis and another in volleyball - ended up by representing the Maltese flag.

The disciplines which gave most satisfaction to the Maltese were athletics and judo with 14 and 8 medals respectively. The most important success was that of Tanya Blake, an athlete based in the UK, who won the gold medal in the 800 metres establishing a record time for the games. She also managed to win a silver medal in the 4x400m relay. A number of athletes won two or more medals. Deirdre Farrugia won one gold, one silver and two bronze. She was also unlucky to lose another bronze medal after the photo-finish in the 100m. Rachid Chouhal also won four medals: two silver and two bronze while Mario Bonello won three - two silver and one bronze. Carol Galea won two silver medals while Lara Gerada won a silver and a bronze. Sue Spiteri also managed to win a gold and a silver in the relay events. The other medal winners were Angie Mangion and Therese Mallia (gold); Maltese-Australian Kevin Bezzina, Darren Gilford and Celine Pace (silver) and John Buhagiar, Fabio Spiteri and Karl Farrugia (bronze).

Judo was once again the sport to give great satisfaction to Malta. In fact out of the ten judokas taking place, eight of them won a medal. Laurie Pace repeated the success obtained in Liechtenstein, winning once again the gold medal. Malta's other gold medalist was Natalie Galea, who had represented Australia in the Olympic Games in Atlanta five years ago. Michael Zahra and another judoka based in Australia, Michelle Grech, won the silver medals. Daniela Casha and Reuben Micallef were pleasant surprises as they won bronze medals. On the other hand, more was expected from the experienced Jason Trevisan and Maltese-Australian Mick Cutajar who won bronze medals in their categories. The other two judokas, Darren Casha and Tonio Schembri, were unlucky not to win a medal after placing fourth in their categories.

At last Malta managed to win a gold medal in shooting. The winner was Philip Busuttil in the double-trap. Frans Pace won a silver medal in trap while sixteen-year-old William Chetcuti won a silver medal in his first ever competition abroad. Malta's other two gold medals were obtained, ironically in two sports which will not be included in two years' time in the next edition of the games which will be held in Malta. Malta had always performed poorly in cycling in the Small Nations' Games. However this time, the arrival of top cyclist Dave Millar, leader of the Tour de France for three days last year, seemed to have boosted the performance of the other cyclists. Millar won the gold medal for Malta and Jack Schiavone obtained a very good result placing fourth in the time-trial. Bowls (bocci) were introduced for the first time in these games with Stefan Farrugia, who played professionally for three months for a club in San Marino earlier this year, dominated the raffa event winning all the games. It's a pity that both cycling and bowls will be scrapped to make way for sailing and squash. Hopefully, permission is granted to the organisers of Malta 2003 to add these two disciplines as well.

In table-tennis, not much more than the three medals won was expected. Losing the two Chinese players, Lu Liping and Shen Chen was a big blow for the table-tennis federation. These two players, together with Maltese-Australian Simon Gerada, were all potential gold medalists. But still female duo Johanna Grech and Christine Cassar Torregiani managed to win two bronze medals in the women's doubles and the team event. In the Men's Singles, Simon Gerada won a silver medal, which was a rather disappointing result for him and for Malta as he had all the potential to win gold.

In volleyball, the women's team managed to win a bronze medal - the first in these games for Malta. Last year this same team had placed third in the European Championships Pool C, the first important achievement for volleyball in Malta. The men's team registered just one win placing fourth.

In tennis - a sport that has given lot of satisfaction in past editions, Malta managed just three bronze medals, two of which by Lisa Camenzuli in the ladies' singles and ladies' doubles, together with Carol Cassar Torregiani. The other bronze medal arrived in the men's doubles thanks to Mark Schembri and Gordon Axiaq.

Although Malta won just a bronze medal in swimming thanks to Angela Galea, results were not that disappointing. The main objective in swimming was that the swimmers gain experience, considering that most of them are still in their early teens. Several personal bests were obtained. Basketball was the only sport in which Malta failed to win a medal. Results were disappointing with Malta winning just one game and losing the final for the fifth and sixth place.

Malta's medal winners