Malta at EAA Second Division League in Croatia

Athletics

To strive for the best team-finish conceivable, the selectors have sought to limit each athlete’s participation, wherever possible, to a maximum of two events, enabling a fresh approach by each individual, in turn avoiding entries in events considered clashing.

Moreover, considering the national effort to prepare and hone a set of young athletes that will be at their best come the Games of Small Nations in Malta in 2023, the team includes youngsters that have come to the fore over the second part of this decade.

Other youngsters to be giving this opportunity, aside from Mireya Cassar in the Shot and Javelin, will be Kurt Zahra and Sara Bartolo, who are intended to be in the respective 4 x 100m relays; Sarah Chouhal for the 4 x 400m relay and Mariah Zahra in the Discus throw.

Another relative youngster, Jacob El Aida Chaffey, will be running the 200m and form part of the two relays.

At the other end of the age-scale will be ever-green Lisa Maria Bezzina, to be lined up in the 3,000m and 5,000m, Antonella Chouhal and Mario Mifsud contesting the hammer. In the sprints, Charlotte Wingfield (100 and 200m) and Luke Bezzina (100m) will also be in the shorter relay, while in the 400m Damien Mizzi and Janet Richard, two very promising U-23 athletes, will also take part in the longer relays.

For the Jumps, Ian Paul Grech will be in both horizontal jumps while ear-marked for the Triple Jump and Long Jump respectively will be Rebecca Sare` and Claire Azzopardi. For the middle-distance events, recent National record holder Paula Grech and Jean Paul Debono will do the honours for Malta in both the 800 and 1,500m.

Hurdlers Daniel Saliba and Marilyn Grech will be competing at both the shorter and one-lap events while at the Steeple-Chase will be Luke Micallef and Mona Lisa Camilleri respectively.

At the Shot and Discus throws our hopes will be in Luke Farrugia with the Javelin event being contested by Bradley Mifsud.

For the men’s longer distance events the selectors came up with Charlton Debono to contest the 5,000m with U-23 Dillon Cassar to take part in the 3,000m.

Another U-23 youngster will be Nicole Gatt, accompanied by Ylenia Pace, making up the four-some in the longer relay; Steve Camilleri making up the number in the same race in the males’ and Annelise Vassallo doing likewise in the females 4 x 100m.

This competition, between the 10 and 11 August, will be pitting 12 European nations, some, like Cyprus and Luxembourg, Malta’s direct competitors in the Games for the Small States of Europe, fielding somewhat familiar faces to our athletes. Mightier nations like hosts Croatia, Bulgaria, Austria and Denmark, besides the Baltic Estonia and Latvia, Slovenia and Israel, will all vie for the top spot that will ensure promotion; Georgia, who just pipped Malta two years ago, completes the picture.

Malta will be taking up 29 athletes, 14 females and 15 males, 2 coaches and 3 officials with Chef de Mission and Team Leader being the MAAA President Edwin Attard.

Anthony Fava On the eve of the one international competition that Malta competes in as a team – the European Athletics Association Second Division League – Athletics Malta conducted its last Track & Field competition of the season. To augur well for a creditable performance in the second week of August, this third outing of the summer meets witnessed two National Records in the field events. Mario Mifsud, a long-established name in the throws, hurled the 7.26kg hammer to a new distance of 52.72 metres and, at the end of the day, triple jumper Claire Azzopardi continued with her fine form clearing 12.97 metres at her first attempt. Equally encouraging, at a lower category level, was the continued progress being shown by 16-year-old Mireya Cassar, constantly altering the Youth and more recently the Junior National records in the Shot Putt, earning her a place on the Malta team as the second youngest member. Her throw at this last meet was a Youth record 13.34m with the implement weighing 3kg. A few weeks ago, her Junior record measuring 11.93 with a 4kg weight, sealed her choice to compete with this weight in Croatia. Our Maltese athletes have been preparing well for these team championships, relishing the opportunity to pull together as they did two years ago to put on a fine collective showing. In fact, points gained by the males and those obtained by our females will be added up for the final score and this being a competition in which each point won will determine placing, will act as a spur maximising potential. Evergreen Lisa Marie Bezzina will again be in the Malta team in Croatia