| Commonwealth Games ·
Manchester 25th July – 4th August 2002
The XVII Commonwealth Games is a world-class event
and is the world’s largest multi-sport event outside
the Olympic games. The Manchester Games involved over
5,000 athletes and officials, from 72 countries and
territories competing across 17 sports, a celebration
of sporting excellence.
The Commonwealth Games have a unique distinction in
the world of sport – for they are dedicated as
no other sporting event is to the principles of democracy
and equality among nations. Every four years, they take
the world’s stage to celebrate the shared values
and traditions of the Commonwealth – a family
of 72 countries and territories whose smallest member
has a voice equal to its largest. For the athletes of
Commonwealth, these games serve as a moment of destiny,
a chance to build friendships and push the envelope
of human performance to new heights on a field of fair
play.
For the Maltese Contingent this was our best ever participation
and our largest contingent with participation in shooting,
athletics, swimming, triathlon, wrestling and weightlifting.
Overall Malta placed 28th out of 72 regions.
- The Shooting contingent obviously made the headlines
with our first medal in this discipline at these games
ever. William Chetcuti, not more than 17 years of
age managed to beat world champions in Double Trap
with a score of 189 placing him in on the winning
podium with a bronze medal (Singh Rajyavardhan of
India came first with a score of 191).
- Nicky Carabott and Joseph Attard gave a great performance
and placed a satisfactory position 6th from 18th in
the Trap pairs. Joseph Attard in the Trap singles
also managed to place in a good position where he
came 10th out of 36 competitors. Other shooters included
Mario Abela and William Vella in the 10m Air Rifle
pairs and singles, Nicky Carabott in the Trap singles,
Raymond Cacciattolo in the 10m Air Pistol singles,
and Paul Vella and Joe Genovese in the Skeet singles.
- For the first time we managed to have an athlete,
Rachid qualify for a final in the long jump with a
7.48mtr jump. Unfortunately he did not manage to run
the 100mtr due to a prior injury. Carol Galea on the
other hand came 7th (out of 15) in her best placing
in the Commonwealth Games ever in the Marathon with
a timing of 2:45:48.
- Swimming we also saw some major successes, maybe
not in medals but 4 national records were broken and
one personal best by two swimmers. Angie Galea broke
the national record in the 100mtr/200mtr butterfly
now standing at 1.04.55 and 2.21.69 respectively and
Roberta Callus broke her personal best in the 200mtr
freestyle and broke the national records in the 400mtr/800mtr
freestyle now standing at 4.40.09 and 9.38.16 respectively.
- Maltese triathletes took part for the first time
in such high calibre games. Dermot Galea came 25th
and Manwel Falzon 27th from 34 participants. Maria
Mifsud Bonnici came 19th from 21.
- In the wrestling arena Jesmond Giordimaina made
a come back and came against gold and bronze medallists
in his pool, placing him 5th out of 8th. Abraham Vassallo
had an excellent performance with two victories in
his pool. He placed 6th out of 14 in 84kgs category.
- Kevin Cassar participated in weightlifting in the
up to 77kgs and placed 10th from 14 competitors.
All in all these games proved to be satisfactory for
the Maltese contingent and confirms the excellent programmes
the MOC sports department has put in place, where if
one takes a close look at the results those athletes
forming part of the MOC strategic development programme
through the various schemes achieved the best results.
Our athletes are slowly but surely showing that they
can compete in major competitions and the MOC will continue
to invest and nurture Maltese talents fulfilling one
of our goals to see a Maltese Olympic medallist.
Sponsors who supported the Maltese contingent at the
Commonwealth Games included Maltacom, Super 5, Airmalta,
Bank of Valletta Ltd and BUPA International. Continuous
support has been given by the Parliamentary Secretarariat
in the Ministry of Education and his Hon. Jesmond Mugliett
who showed his continuous support by visiting some of
the athletes before and during their competition.
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