24 years of age, a peaceful and quiet guy, a long and triple jumper but who does not disdain a fast sprint when it matters. This year, he enjoyed the best season of his career. Ian, a proud and staunch Pembroke Athleta athlete, a PE teacher by profession,

Ian, I am sure you have been interviewed countless times so my aim will be avoiding the usual questions. I cannot but ask you to highlight in brief your athletic career, how it started, at what age and how it developed? What were the resources at that time and nowadays?

I have always loved sports from a young age and athletics was a sport I always wanted to try. At age 7 my mother enrolled me with an athletics group and I used to participate in every fun run or road race which was organised. At the age of 12, the level started becoming more challenging and I won my first award in the local road running league. Having won my very first honour at the age of 13, I wanted to take track and field more seriously and decided to focus my energy on the Long Jump and Triple Jump. I joined Pembroke Athleta, and started training with one of Malta’s finest coaches Jivko Jetchev. For the readers who might not know him, Jivko was a Bulgarian ex professional Pole Vaulter, with years of experience in the sport. Having said that, experience alone did not make him the most decorated coach on the island. His grandeur in stature, the vast knowledge, and pedigree in athletics might be overwhelming to some, still his gentle demeanor instantly had me look up to him as a shining example of what I imagined I could accomplish in my athletics career. Having looked up to him as my role model since my very first training session, twelve years have passed since that day. I can confidently say, that Jivko poured his life and soul into our training sessions; rain or shine, wind or heat, through thick and thin. Over this length of time, Jivko not only changed my training mentality, but the way I envisage my day to day tasks. He thought us never to do anything half measure, to give your all in whatever you do. Training, studies, career, even relationships!

Any athlete can tell you of the positive experiences he’s had. But I believe that the negatives can make or break the athlete. This is where, my support system comes in, thanks to my club and coach’s help I was able to stand strong again, all through these years. Without a shadow of a doubt, season 2017-2018 was the highlight of my athletics career, having managed to qualify and represent Malta at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, Championships Small States of Europe in Liechtenstein and European Championships in Berlin.

I trust that the majority of the athletes’ dream is to represent Malta abroad in major competitions. Unfortunately, Malta top level in athletics is still lagging behind when compared to other countries. For unknown reasons, smaller countries have managed to improve considerably and nowadays they can battle it out against bigger countries. How is your state of mind prior to international competitions? You were among the top echelons of athletics whilst at the Commonwealth, how were your feelings?

It’s always an honour wearing the Maltese colours, but it’s also a big responsibility because wearing that kit means that you are representing each and every Maltese citizen. Representing Malta at different international competitions such as the European Championships and Commonwealth Games was already an achievement in itself. However, clearing a personal best of 7.43m whilst competing against some of the world’s best jumpers was the cherry on the cake, and an experience which is impossible to forget. At the Commonwealth Games I placed 19th out of the 28 athletes participating, a result which I hold to high esteem, considering I was taking part against professional athletes from the likes of Jamaica, South Africa, England, Australia and more. If I’m honest, it would be unwise to compare ourselves with these country’s athletes. Many of these athletes are grossly state-funded, train in luxurious complexes and have an entire entourage who allow the athlete in question, to focus his energy on those 6 jumps. Recently, it is clear to see that we do not fall behind in physical ability, but more work needs to be done before we can continuously fight for podium finishes. For example, competing in Malta against the very same opponents fifteen times a year becomes monotonous and gets tedious, which often leads to loosing motivation. From experience I feel that competing against other athletes abroad encouraged me, having said that having to travel around is awfully costly.