Today the Malta Snooker Academy based in Hamrun will host an exhibition match between two of Malta’s best ever players Tony Drago and Alex Borg. This event is being organised by SportMalta with the collaboration of the Malta Billiards and Snooker Association as part of the European Week of Sports which officially ends today.

Tony Drago and Alex Borg who are well known for their national and international results, will face each other over best of nine frames.

Also as part of this 7th edition of the European Week of Sport, the Malta Snooker Accademy organised the BeActive Tournament in which 52 players took part with the final game  being played today.  Finalists Philip Ciantar and Brian Cini will decide the winner over seven frames. In the semi finals Philip Ciantar beat Chris Peplow 3-1 whilst Brian Cini managed to beat Glenn Axiaq 3-2.

The two games are going to be streamed live on YouTube Channel link https://youtu.be/KtkBQyyBy61

The final of the BeActive Tournament between Ciantar and Cini starts at 5:00 pm with the exhibition game between Drago and Borg immediately after it.

27 member states and many other countries across Europe and the
western Balkans throughout this week are having a massive
campaign in order to get the populations more active. The European
week of Sport is an initiative by the European Commission to create
awareness towards the need of physical activity in one’s life. The
European week of Sport was symbolically launched by Commissioner
Maria Gabriel in Bled, Slovenia, the country which holds the EU
Presidency of the Council.

Malta through SportMalta, the government entity for sport
organised two main events and many other satellite events for our
population to be more active. On Thursday the Kirkop Sport
Complex was transformed into a sport village where many
associations, federation and clubs displayed their sport. Hundreds of
athletes of different ages and abilities took part in this event which
was endorsed the presence of Minister Julian Farrugia and
Parliamentary Secretary Clifton Grima. Traditional team sport
organised sessions for their nurseries. basketball, netball, rugby and
football. There were also other individual such as table-tennis, table
football, weightlifting, a show from BMX, kendo, judo, badminton,
taekwando, gymnastics, triathlon, line dancing, athletics and
Waterpolo. The SportMalta programme on the move was also active
with displays from the academies. There were also competitions
organised by Special Olympics Malta and the Frame football
association who were recently donated 31 frames by SportMalta for
the sport to keep expanding. SportMalta employees and coaches
were also very active to distribute various freebies with the Be Active
logo for the message to be passed on to their families.
Yesterday all Europe between 21 and 23 hours celebrated the
BeActive night. For the second year running SportMalta organised
an Obstacle course relay which was transmitted live on TV. The
competition was held in the adventure park adjacent to the

Cottonera Sport Complex. 8 teams made up of four participants ( 2
male and 2 female) took part in a knockout competition. The teams
had a non playing captain many of who were ambassadors of this
year European Week of Sport. The obstacles varied with the athletes
being challenged on good grip and core strength. All 32 athletes
tried hard to get their body over and around the obstacles on a
slippery terrain made more difficult with rain simulation throughout
the course. There were intervention during the activity by Dr Lydia
Abela who focussed on the various initiatives she is launching to
promote physical activity for a healthy citizenship, parliamentary
secretary Clifton Grima, SportMalta Chairman Luciano Busuttil and
National Coordinator Rosemarie Mercieca. After three hard fought
battles the team captained by Special Olympics athlete Matthew
Bugeja emerged to be winners beating the team captained by
Olympian Matthew Abela. The team led by Paralympian Thomas
Borg finished third. SportMalta chief executive officer Mark Cutajar
presented the trophy and 800 Euro in sport Equipment to the
winning team.

During the Be Active night SportMalta launched two parallel
campaigns. The first one focussed on creating a balance between
sport and education. A number of sport personalities of all ages
passed their message through short video clips. These include
Waterpolo youngster Jayden Cassar, young tennis player Kayleigh
Busuttil, 400m runner Janet Richards, former 400m runner Charlene
Attard, football coach Paul Zammit, parent Mariella Borg Costanzi
and special Olympian Rachel Chircop. The second number of clips
promote volunteering with coaches / administrators Joseph Muscat
(basketball), Philip Ciantar (Snooker), Mario Aquilina (Sailing), Laura
Demicoli (Paralympic Committee) and Maria Vidal (Special Olympics)
encouraging followers to join and volunteer and club and national
level.

For more information about the European week of Sport which will
come to an end on the 30 th September you can join the web on
www.sportmalta.mt

Mark Cutajar Chief Executive Officer of SportMalta said that the activities will be focused between 23rd September and 30th September. The opening of the activities will take place through sports activities at the Kirkop Sports Complex. More than 20 sports organizations will take part and they range from individual sports to team sports. The activity starts at 18:00.

Cutajar said that another important event will take place on the 25th of the month in the garden next to the Cottonera Sports Complex. The activity traditionally known as #BeActive Night will be an Obstacle Uphill Sprint Relay between 8 teams and 32 athletes on a knockout basis.

He also mentioned that there will be other activities including activities in different localities and from different organizations as well as activities in schools. Cutajar said he will start a media campaign on volunteering in sport, the outdoors as well as on the balance between sport and education.

Finally, Cutajar also announced that the ambassadors of this edition are Sacha Gatt, Yazmin Zammit Stevens, Matthew Bugeja, Vlada Kravchenko, Matthew Abela, Eleanor Bezzina, Andrew Chetcuti, Thomas Borg, Matthew Bugeja and Carla Scicluna who all took part in the Olympics, Paralympics and Special Olympics.

To commemorate the European Week of Sport, Marsakala Aquatic organized a half-day waterpolo interleague at its own training grounds, Zonqor Point Ex-National Pool on Sunday 5^thSeptember. The league was played amongst four participant teams made up of members of the Club’s nursery, parents, senior team members, masters and coaching staff. Members of the Club’s nursery were each presented with a backpack courtesy of SportMalta. The event was closed off with a festive BBQ for all attendees. Marsaskala Aquatic strongly believes that sports and physical exercise is a way to achieve a healthy lifestyle. Club members and its committee would like to thank SportMalta for supporting and encouraging this initiative #BEACTIVE

The preparatory meeting for the stakeholders of this year’s European Week of Sport was held on the 24^th of August 2021 at the InterContinental, Malta. The Malta Sports Journalists Association was invited together with SportMalta employees from different departments.

SportMalta’s CEO, Mark Cutajar holds that, “Since sports is very important, it can’t only be judged from international results which are obtained in competitions, but from within the community itself”. The European Week of Sport promotes not only sport but also fitness and nutrition and although it only lasts a week, a lot of preparation is done before implementation so that we see the results of this week all year round.  Therefore, the main objective of EWOS 2021 is to lower the percentage of people who do not do sport to 50% or less in comparison to 2018 which was 56%. Together with this objective, the priorities are joy, resilience and intergenerational activities as physical activity needs to be supported more by the community especially post global pandemic.

This year’s focus themes are education, workplace, outdoors, sports clubs, and fitness centers. Education, where all primary and secondary schools will be split in a total of 4 groups and a video will be shown to the students to follow from; workplace, where there will be staff events and programs through sport; outdoors, certain sports activities are better done outdoors and here in Malta the best place for that is the Mediterranean sea; sports clubs, through the main national event and the #BeActive Night, will be provided with a chance to exhibit their potential; also fitness centers, will be the main objective of the #BeActive Night and Local Council activities.

The use of plastic during sports activities has increased to a point where the environment is clearly not being taken care of. For this reason, SportMalta is encouraging all athletes and citizens alike to make a change and start using re-usable bottles which can be re-filled through water fountains and water dispensers found in certain localities.

Social media has taken over some typical traditional media and therefore more emphasis is being made to raise awareness on certain sport activities which will be held, alongside the voluntary work which is highly needed especially for the upcoming Special Olympics being held next year and Games of the Small Nations of Europe 2023.

40 sports organizations benefitted from a government scheme through which €1 million were
allocated for the installation of energy-efficient systems. This project will be saving around 340
tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

In a collaboration between the Energy and Water Agency and Sport Malta, 40 clubs implemented
more than 60 projects encompassing light installations, heat pumps, appliances, and pumping
equipment, amongst others.

Druing a ceremony held at the Hibernians Basketball Pavilion, Minister for Energy, Enterprise and
Sustainable Development Miriam Dalli and Parliamentary Secretary for Sport, Recreation and
Voluntary Organisations Clifton Grima awarded clubs with commemorative plaques for their
investment.

Highlighting the benefits of sustainable operations, Minister Miriam Dalli explained how such
schemes generate a lot of interest. Thus, the government decided to allocate more funds to allow for
more energy-efficient projects.

“It is our role to continue assisting those who wish to make sustainable changes. This investment will
result in less energy consumption and more energy efficiency”, said Minister Miriam Dalli.

As a result of installing energy-efficient equipment, these organisations will be saving €100,000
annually.

Minister Miriam Dalli said that the government will continue to incentivise these entities to keep
producing clean energy, which will contribute to more sustainable economic growth and allow
Malta’s targets to be achieved by everyone. As shown by the collaboration between the EWA and
Sport Malta, planning and technical support will lead to more positive results.

During the ceremony, Parliamentary Secretary Clifton Grima praised the 40 sports organisations who
took the step to invest in more sustainable energy. He stated that through these investments, a
substantial number of sports and voluntary organisations are benefitting financially, and that this same
investment will be re-invested in the community.

“Our aim, as government, is to create a sustainable society in all sectors. Through this initiative, both
the environmental and the sports sectors are benefitting from lower electricity bills, together with a
better environment and strong financial support”, stated the parliamentary secretary, while also
praising the EWA and Sport Malta which, through their collaborative efforts, yielded a sustainable
investment for sport organisations.
This project will target three Sustainable Development Goals:
• SDG7 – Affordable and Clean Energy
• SDG11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities
• SDG13 – Climate Action
Present for the ceremony were the CEO of the EWA Mr Manuel Sapiano and the CEO of Sport Malta Mr Mark Cutajar.

At the Cottonera Sports Complex, SportMalta distributed the investment of five million euros, received from the NDSF, to 10 sports associations in order to start the training of Maltese athletes for the Small Nations Games that will be held in our country in 2023.

The agreement to transfer these funds was signed today by the Chief Executive Officer of SportMalta and the 10 associations, in the presence of the Parliamentary Secretary for Sport, Recreation and Voluntary Organizations Clifton Grima and the Parliamentary Secretary for -Citizenship and Communities Alex Muscat

Parliamentary Secretary Clifton Grima said that Sport Malta has already invested in infrastructure as well as new sports facilities that can be enjoyed by all. The Parliamentary Secretary said that through this financial investment, which will serve as a boost and preparation for the Maltese athletes before the Small Nations games in Malta in the year 2023, he will continue to confirm both the Government is a shoulder for athletes and sports organizations and that the aspirations of so many athletes will be achievable.

Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Communities Alex Muscat, stressed that the € 5 million investment that the NDSF agency has made in Maltese athletes who will be competing hard in the games of small countries 2023 is a beacon of wealth being created by Maltese programs that attract foreign direct investment. “Once again, our country is clearly showing how the wealth generated by residency and citizenship initiatives is translating into more aid and investment coming to the community.” While wishing the athletes good luck, he reiterated his commitment to continue attracting to Malta the foreign direct investment that is translating into so many benefits for our country.

SportMalta Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutajar explained that the record of assistance given today is an investment and shows trust in all athletes. The goals are clear and the plan is ready so that most of the athletes start living a professional career that will surely be fruitful. The aim of all this is to win a record gold medal in the small country games and qualify as many athletes as Possible for the Olympic Games in France for the year 2024.

Through these funds, sports associations will be able to employ professional coaches on a full-time basis together with the rest of the necessary technical staff, to finance the participation of Maltese athletes in competitions and training sessions abroad, and invest in more adequate technical tools.

The sports disciplines that have been assisted are: athletics, basketball, judo, rugby, Sailing, shooting, squash, swimming, table tennis, and tennis. Sport Malta is offering the necessary support so that Maltese athletes are best prepared.