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MALTA AMATEUR ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
7 Racecourse Street, Marsa, Malta
aaachircop@nextgen.net.mt
 ATHLETICS MALTA NEWSLETTER  
Issue No: 33Date of issue: 19
th
July, 2009
 With Liechtenstein 2011 in mind
In this issue our readers will be finding the results and performances that our athletes achieved in the GSSE,the European Team Championships, the Mediterranean Games and the European U23 games. We need to lookat these results critically and try to reason why we have not achieved better results, and/or alternatively wheredo we go from here? What can we do to achieve better results in future years?We have often stated our believe that we first need to raise the level of our sport before we can start winningmedals. One could immediately remark
“
but there was a time when we were winning medals!
”
. Yes, that is afact. So in other words we need to continue where we left off in June 2005. To be able to come up with a goodplan for the future, one must first of all look back and see what were we doing when we were winning!The medals won in athletes from 1989 to date are as shown hereunder:-If one were to take a close look at this table, whichshows of medals won in athletics in the GSSEGames one should come to the conclusion that wemust have been doing something good between theyears 2001 and 2005 after all. One must rememberthat during those years we had, with the assistanceof the MOC, employed a Coaching Coordinator andlater on we set up the Event Coaching scheme.So perhaps we need to re-think and come with ascheme whereby the Association will have someoneto coordinate and monitor the Coaching of ourathletes.It was during the year 2006 that things started to change. The MOC changed its funding policy, whereby itstarted giving most of the funds budgeted for ’athletics’ directly to the athletes with little or no direct fundingto the MAAA. The MAAA therefore could not assist athletes who were not on the ‘Elite’ Athletes Scheme of theMOC. It must also be understood that it is not only the athletes who are on the Elite Athletes scheme thatmanage to win medals at the GSSE Games.
 
It is also a fact that during the period between one GSSE Games and another our athletes fall into a sortapathy causing the athletes to lose interest. This situation needs to be rectified. The MAAA is thereforeplanning to offer its athletes the chance of another competition of high standard (apart from the GSSE ) everyyear. The MAAA is considering participating with its whole team in the
European Team Championships –3
rd
League
(formerly known as the European Cup ). Up till now the MAAA has participated in theseChampionships as part of the Combined Team of the Small States of Europe where it formed part of a teamtogether with athletes coming from Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino.Year
Total Gold Silver
Bronze
1989 1 0 0 11991 2 0 1 11993 7 0 2 51995 4 0 1 31997 6 1 2 31999 7 0 2 52001 14 2 6 62003* 16 4 5 7 2005 17 2 9 62007 
11 0 5 6
2009
5 0 3 2
Total90 9 36 45
 
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The aim for this change is twofold -a)
 
to work on the improvement of those events in which we already have competing athletes and wherewe already have the necessary basic standard, but perhaps more important,b)
 
we need to work on and encourage young athletes to try out events in which to date we have very fewor no athletes ( like the Hurdles, High Jump, Hammer and Steeple chase);To do that we firstly need to provide the necessary equipment and secondly to see that we have the Coacheswho are prepared to help young talented athletes take up these events.One experiment which in my opinion did work very well was when we brought over to Malta, in Decemberand again in January this year, two foreign Coaches, one for ‘Sprinters’ and the other one for the ‘throwers’.Perhaps this could be one way to improve the level of our established athletes, help our Coaches obtain morepractical ideas on Club Coaching systems, and encourage the training of new or relatively new events like thePole Vault and the Hurdles.3. The Association has already invested in a new set of adjustable Steeple Chase Hurdles. It also needs toconsider the purchase of a new Pole Vault mat, an investment of around Euro25,000. It also intends to invest ina larger stock of training hurdles. We then obviously need to integrate the Coaches in this scheme.The only serious difficulty that the Association is seeing in this plan is the financing of the airfares to sendaround 20 athletes to participate in the European Team Championships each year. The Association considersthe participation of its athletes in the European Team Championship as the best preparation that our athletescan get for such competitions as the GSSE and the Commonwealth Games and should be considered as such.4. Minimum Qualifying Standards are necessary and important to have. However we have often seen athleteswho make great sacrifices, train regularly and make great efforts to just manage to achieve the MQS, either justbefore the GSSE or weeks before the event itself. The athletes concentration of effort in “qualifying”, issometimes causing injuries. This is not good enough. We need to have athletes who can maintain a constantand good level of competition for a few months at least, even if not at competition level, but at least we wouldknow that our athletes are preparing themselves well. This is why I had advocated ( in a section of the mediaa couple of weeks ago) a lower level of MQS /s but which needs to be achieved three times during the sixmonths before the games. This would also eliminate the petty differences that sometimes arise betweenathletes who try to avoid competing against athletes who they know can give them a good race. There was atime when the MOC were even paying money to bring athletes from abroad as sparring partners when ourathletes do their best to avoid good competition. Certain, such attitudes and behavior does not make sense.In the European Team Championships (third league ) our athletes will be competing against 12 otherEuropean teams and include strong teams coming from Israel, Denmark, Montenegro, Bosgina Herzegovina,Georgia and Luxemburg. This should be the ideal preparation for our athletes, while at the same time, it isindeed a competition in which our athletes should be proud to have the opportunity to compete in. I sincerelyhope that the MAAA will find the necessary support to be able to participate in this competition as ‘MALTA’.
ContentsThe Cyprus 2009 GSSE GamesGSSE Cyprus 2009 – ResultsEuropean Team Championships – SarajevoMediterranean Games – Pescara ( Nicolai Portelli )European Athletics U23 Championships – Kaunas (James D’alfonso)InovationEuropean Athletics Women Leadership AwardMAAA Road Running League 2008/ 2009 – ResultsImportant dates to watch out for ……Page3 -456778910-1415
 
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The Cyprus 2009 GSSE Games
As one can image the results that our athletes registered in Cyprus during the GSSE Games are very importantto us. These are important mainly due to the high profile that the media gives to these games. They are alsoimportant as our own athletes plan, train and work really hard firstly to qualify to be able to participate and andthen to obtain positive results in these games.On page 5 on this same Newsletter, on one page, I have included a list of all the (athletic ) results registeredduring the games. Instead of commenting on each result I am hereunder reproducing the gist of an articles thatI had written and was published in “The Times” on the 1
st
July, 2009. Several people have in fact asked me toinclude this article has they had missed seeing it.
“Athletics in the Cyprus GSSE Games
I would be the first one to admit that the results obtained by our athletes in Cyprus fell short of my expectationswhen considering the efforts made by the athletes and coaches concerned as well as the Association (assisted bythe MOC ). Some athletes had been putting more hours in their training schedule thanks to the 20/20 schemethat was introduced by the KMS. Among them were ‘throwers’ who unfortunately, despite their efforts, didnot make it to Cyprus.The positive side of the picture, three silver and three bronze medals are indeed a credit to the athletes whowon them even if not enough as to justify the money and time invested by all the stakeholders.I would certainly start by hailing Nicolai Portelli for his exciting win of the silver in the 200m. I was standing atthe finish but could not really tell if Nicolai was second or third and in fact even the officials, who were aidedby their photo finish equipment, took a long time to issue the result. James Dalfonso, the Australian born Maltese won the silver in the 400m (on Thursday ) in a creditable time of49.07 seconds. James won the silver after passing through the semi-finals on Tuesday in a time of 49.28secs. Heagain ran the third leg of the 400m Relay on Saturday. James, a calm person by nature, never raised onecomplaint and it is to his credit that he not only ran a fast heat on his way to the final, won the silver in arelatively good time and but also put in a great effort to help the team win the bronze in the 4 x 400m in 3.18.57.(on Saturday).Carol Walsh remains formidable as ever over the longer distances. In Nicosia she returned the good time of37:39.13 in the 10,000m to win the bronze. She was followed in by Gizelle Camilleri in fourth place.I could not help but admire Gizelle’s brave attempt at the 5000m which she ran on the Saturday, after havingrun the 10,000m on the previous Tuesday. She knew that she was again up against the same 10,000m medalwinners plus a new fresh runner. She tagged along and won the bronze in 18:00.43. She had ran better timesover this same distance on other occasions but coming so soon after a tough 10,000m this was still a fineperformance. I wondered what her time in the 5000m would have been had she not ran the 10000m.I was also overjoyed to see Diane Borg coming to form again. Diane who was injured just before the GSSEGames two years ago had been out of competition virtually for the last two years and was only allowed to trainfor the event just two months before the Cyprus games. Her placing fifth in a time of 12.41 seconds may nothave attracted the attention of the reporters but it has certainly been noted by those close to our sport.Also of interest were the participation of the two young athletes Andy Grech (6.92m ) and Alexandra Pace andAlexandra Pace (5.72m) in the Long Jump. Both produced less then their best performances, but one needs
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