The Minister for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation Clifton Grima this morning welcomed the Ministers responsible for Sport of the countries participating in the Small Countries Games for the Conference Ministerial regarding two documents that were presented by our country which are ‘Elite athletes and understanding their challenges in the small states of Europe’ and ‘Grassroots in sport in the small states of Europe’.
In the conference, which was led by Minister Grima, the Minister of Andorra Monica Bonell Tuset participated; the Minister of Iceland Ásmundur Einar Daðason; the Minister of Liechtenstein Dominique Hasler; the Minister of Luxembourg Georges Engel; the Minister of San Marino Teodoro Lonferini; and the Minister of Montenegro Vasilije Lalošević. On the Cyprus side they were represented by Andreas Michaelides, who is the President of the Sports Organization of the country, while only the Minister of Monaco was missing because the government is not yet formed after the election in the country.
The Ministers were accompanied by officials as well as by the Presidents of the Olympic Committees of all the countries participating in these games. The President of the European Olympic Committee Spyros Capralos, who was also present at this Conference, presented recognition to Minister Grima for the organization of this sporting event in our country. He praised our country for this commitment and said that he is enjoying being among us and that he is seeing so much enthusiasm from all the delegations after the absence of these games, after the edition that was supposed to take place in 2021 in Andorra it had not been held due to the restrictions linked to the pandemic.
A record 1,000 athletes from 9 countries are taking part in this 19th edition, during which our country is also commemorating the 20th anniversary when it hosted these games for the second time in 2003 and the 30th anniversary from when he hosted these games for the first time in 1993. The expectation is for the Official Opening of this event which will take place on the Night on the Floriana Granaries, a spectacular opening which will be crowded with Maltese talent. Meanwhile during the day the competitions started, including the basketball, tennis and squash games. The Small Country Games will continue until next Saturday, when the closing ceremony will also take place.
