The second edition of the Youth Development Scheme by SportMalta in collaboration with Bank of Valletta was launched during a press conference held at BOV’s Head Office in Santa Venera.

The Youth Development Scheme targets individual athletes in all sporting disciplines under the age of 18 and assists them in furthering their sporting career by participating at an international level beyond our shores.

The event was addressed by Anthony Scicluna, Chief Officer at Bank of Valletta, Dr Luciano Busuttil and Mark Cutajar, Chairman and CEO at SportMalta respectively and Parliamentary Secretary for Sports Dr Clifton Grima.

‘Bank of Valletta is synonymous with sports in Malta, supporting the major sports organization on the island’, said Mr Scicluna. ‘However we have always felt that the youth sector needs more support, and the Youth Development Scheme, provides us with an opportunity to support Malta’s budding young athletes who will be the champions of the near future.’

‘The Scheme is an opportunity for Malta’s young Athletes to gain experience in international competitions and an investment in our country’s sportive future,’ said Dr Busuttil. ‘This investment in our minor sector will help them take the leap to the next level and gain the necessary experience in international competitions.’

‘The financial burden associated with competing in international events is very hard to be sustained by the athletes themselves,’ continued Dr Busuttil. ‘The collaboration between SportMalta and Bank of Valletta will ensure that athletes with good potential are given the gain the experience of training and competing abroad, a necessary stepping stone in their sporting career.’

‘The scheme, a 50-50 partnership between SportMalta and BOV will assist twenty athletes, chosen according to their personal capacity and performance in their Sport,’ said Mr Cutajar. ‘Flight expenses, event participation fees and accommodation are all being covered by this scheme.’

‘National Sports Organisations of the particular disciplines shall be asked by SportMalta for recommendations in relation to the Athlete’s performance and potential, in order to ensure that the National Sports Organisations’ views are taken into consideration’ concluded Mr Cutajar.

‘I take this opportunity to thank SportMalta and Bank of Valletta for investing in the future of our athletes with a scheme that will assist us in preparing as many athletes as possible for the Games for the Small States of Europe 2023 that will be hosted in Malta’ said the Hon Dr Clifton Grima. ‘This second edition of the scheme will continue to build up the numbers and level of our promising athletes in a bid to obtain a large number of medals at these games.

Further information about the scheme can be accessed via in the Assistance Scheme Page.

Another ambitious project by SportMalta has kicked off with works for the first ever Indoor Pool in Malta, which will be located at the Cottonera.

SportMalta CEO Mark Cutajar stated that this ambitious project is a dream for every sports person who has at heart water sports. He continued “The new indoor pool will continue to develop swimming and waterpolo in the south of Malta”.

The new pool will help to ease the load on the National Pool Complex which is fully booked all the time with various swimming and waterpolo activities from various clubs and organsiations.

SportMalta staff started the dismantling of the current Bocci Drome, starting off Phase 1 of the project. This will be followed by various survey on site to ensure the project is up to standard with health and safety standards.

Tenders for the excavation works will be issued in October with the final tender planned to be issued in December.

The project is planned to cost round 7 million euro and works are planned to be ready by December 2020.

The complex will be one of the official venues that will host the Small Nations Games which our country will be hosting in 2023. The venue will be used for all aquatic sports.

The Cottonera Sports Complex was transformed into a sport village to inspire people to take on a new sport discipline and start to get active.

The event was organised by SportMalta as part of this year’s European Week of Sport.

Numerous ilies attended the eventalso took part in most of the activities that their children participated in throughout the year.

The activity was also part of the season closing celebration of this summer edition of Summer On The Move which saw 7500 students taking part in over 55 sport disciplines.

Parliamentary Secretary Dr Clifton Grima also attended the event with his family participating in some of the activities.

The event saw a number of exhibitions from Gymnastics, Weightlifting, Motorsports, Traditional Bocci, Fitness, Scrabble, Yoga and Capoeira. A number of stands saw sport services, namely physiotherapists promoting their services to the sport community.

The public also had the opportunity to tour the Three Cities and received a number of cool #BeActive and SportMalta merchandise.

housands of children accompanied by parents and coaches this morning took part in several activities at The National Pool Sports Complex in tal-Qroqq as the Summer On The Move programme came to an end. At the same time the European Week of Sport celebrated together with 32 countries was officially opened by Dr Clifton Grima Parliamentary Secretary responsible from Sports together with SportMalta’s Chairman Lucjano Busuttil and Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutajar. Also present was the Opposition’s Sports Speaker Hon. Ryan Callus.

All four speakers were emphatic about the importance that everyone should perform a physical activity which does not necessarily have to be a competitive one. They asked all those present to spread the word to their families and friends that being active makes us live a healthier and longer life whilst also fighting off obesity hence the slogan #BEACTIVE.

This year’s Summer On The Move saw a record number of 7000 participants confirming the programme’s increasing popularity.

The opening included a FlyBoard Show as well as an exhibition by the Academy of Synchronised Swimming.

Friday 7th September Malta will be joining the rest of Europe in the opening of the European Week of Sport. At 9:00 a.m. everyone is being encouraged to join SportMalta at the National Pool Complex Tal-Qroqq where not only will we have the opening but also the popular programme Summer On The Move will come to an end.  Whilst the main activity here will be concentrated on water games there will also be a squash tournament, yoga, aqua fitness and skipping rope classes for adults as well as a show by the synchronised swimming academy and an under 11 water polo tournament.

At 6:00 in the evening the activity will continue at the Cottonera Sports Complex with an organised sport village that will go on until 10:00 at night.  This will be the perfect opportunity for children to experience a new sport like cycling, dance and gymnastics.  We will also have the traditional game of bocci encouraging all visitors to try it out. An innovative Dance and Draw workshop intended to inspire young artists to express themselves will also be introduced. Adults and children alike will have the opportunity to participate in indoor rowing as well as fitness and yoga classes.

There will also be happy train trips round the three cities as well as quizzes.  All in all definitely an event not to be missed.  Entrance and participation is free for all and a lot of freebies will be distributed to those that take part.

The Head Office will be closed on Friday 7th September due to the European Week of Sport Event. We invite you to join us and #BeActive

Morning: From 9.00am to noon at Tal-Qroqq National Pool
Evening: from 18.00 to 22.00 at Cottonera Sports Complex

SportMalta, MaltCo and Fitness 24/7 have teamed up together to organize the 1st Edition of the UBet Sport Challenge as part of the European Week of Sport 2018. This year the event will be held at Cottonera Sport Complex on Friday 7th September 2018 from 18.00hours onwards.

All participants must fill in the application form underneath. This will enable officials to determine results and classifications for the different categories. The form must be submitted to SportMalta before or on the day of the event. Failure to do so will result in nonparticipation.

Fitness 24/7 is providing 10 spinning machines. The challenge is to cover the distance in your category in the shortest time possible.

Download the Application

The Malta Weightlifting Association are organising a three week training camp and seminars  with international renowned coach Tamas Feher.

Hungarian-British Tamás Fehér is a highly qualified internationally recognised weightlifting coach with over 35 years experience. He has demonstrated a significant ability to develop and encourage weightlifters to the international level in many countries all over the world.

He is mostly known for his work between 2008 and 2014 where he was working as the Head Coach of British Weightlifting (Great Britain Male and Female Nation Squad) leading the British male and female team to several World and European Championships including the successful London 2012 Olympic Games. He taught numerous international Weightlifting courses, Strength & Conditioning coaching courses and lately also CrossFit seminars. Some of which were requested by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Olympic Solidarity, International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), European Weightlifting Federation (EWF), Poliquin Institute and Eleiko, Weightlifting USA, Sheffield United Football Club, England Rugby Union, UK Sport TASS, etc..

Our Maltese athletes have many upcoming international competitions and will highly benefit from this training camp. Young athletes like Shelby Mangion Vassallo (15 years old) is preparing to participate in the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in October, Tenishia Thorton (13 years old) will be competing in the Challenge 201 tournament in Switzerland in October.  Thornton and Tristan Zammit (15 years old) are both national event in Valencia next September. Young athletes are training  more than 8 times a week during their summer holidays

Senior athlete Yazmin Zammit Stevens is also preparing for 2 major meets coming up in the next few months. She will first compete at the World University Championships alongside Rodmar Pulis in Poland in late September, and at the IWF World Championships that will take place in Turkmenistan in early November.

All these athletes along with other promising athletes will be training under the watchful eye of Tamas feher and their national team coach Jesmond Caruana for a jam packed 3 weeks leading up to a national competition on the 16th of September.

Open call for the running of food and drink stalls  on Friday 7th September 2018 for European week of Sport 2018 taking place at Cottonera Sport Complex, a sport festival running from 18..00 hrs to 22.00 hrs for an audience of 800-1000 people throughout the night (these numbers can vary).

All those interested are to have his or her own equipment/ stall. Healthy Food and drinks only can be sold during the event.

This morning at the Kirkop Sports Complex, SportMalta launched the fourth edition of the European Week of Sport 2018, an initiative to promote Sport and Physical Activity, funded by the European Commission and happening inSportMalta Luanched  32 countries across Europe.

SportMalta CEO Mark Cutajar did a run through of the activities that will happen in the month of September, commencing with a brace of activities on the 7^thof September starting at 09:00 to 12:00 hours in  the National Pool Complex and as from 18:00 hours till late at the Cottonera Sport Complex.  During these events there will be various activities for all ages.  On the 28^thof the month all schools in Malta will be physically active during the European School Sports day, whilst on the 29^thas from 20:00 hours onwards, the Kirkop Sport Complex will host the Beactive night, a mix of sport, activities, physical fitness and music once again for all ages. The Flag Ship event in Cottonera and the Be Active night in Kirkop are open to public and lots of give a ways will be given to participants.

Moreover many clubs, associations and federations together with a number of NGOS will be organising a record number of activities to move the nation to be more physically active.  All activities are being supported by SportMalta.

Chairman Luciano Busuttil highlighted the fact that The European Week of Sport did an impact on the Maltese Islands and this is being witnessed by the positive result in the latest Eurobarometer.

Parliamentary Secretary Clifton Grima said that he is very happy with the effort done by everyone involved to organise the activities.  He also encouraged all public to take part and endorse physical activity as part of their lifestyle.  He also expressed the wish that the European Week of Sport will not only be a week activity but it will be spread all year round.

SportMalta also announced 2018 ambassadors, Maria James from Special Olympics Malta, Malta’s Sport woman of the year, weightlifter Yasmin Zammit Stephens,  Sliema Wanderers and National Team player Ryan Fenech (a SportMalta employee) and Waterpolo National Team Coach Karl Izzo who has been ambassador since 2015.  Izzo on behalf of the ambassadors addressed those who are physically inactive, encouraging them to start slowly slowly taking part in physical active exercises who will leave a positive physical and mental effect on the individuals.

The launch was anchored by Malta Sports Journalists Associations President Sandro Micallef.  The Association is one important stakeholder of the event.