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31 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 JANUARY 2019 SPORTS Tennis THE Vatican launched an official track team Thursday with the aim of com- peting in international competitions as part of an agreement signed with the Italian Olympic Committee. About 60 Holy See runners — Swiss Guards, priests, nuns, pharmacists and even a 62-year-old professor who works in the Vatican's Apostolic Library — are the first accredited members of Vatican Ath- letics. It's the latest iteration of the Holy See's long-standing promotion of sport as an instrument of dialogue, peace and soli- darity. Because of the agreement with CONI, the team is now a part of the Italian track association and is looking to join the Inter- national Association of Athletics Federa- tions. It is hoping to compete in interna- tional competitions, including the Games of the Small States of Europe — open to states with fewer than 1 million people — and the Mediterranean Games. "The dream that we have often had is to see the Holy See flag among the delegations at the opening of the Olympic Games," said Monsignor Melchor Jose Sanchez de Toca y Alameda, team president and the head of the Vatican's sports department in the culture ministry. But he said that was neither a short-term nor medium-term goal, and that for now the Vatican was looking to participate in competitions that had cultural or symbolic value. "We might even podium," he noted. Vatican pharmacist-runner Michela Ciprietti told a Vatican press conference the aim of the team isn't exclusively com- petitive, but rather to "promote culture and running and launch the message of solidarity and the fight against racism and violence of all types." Team members wearing matching na- vy warm-up suits bearing the Holy See's crossed keys seal attended the launch. Also on hand were two honorary mem- bers of the team, migrants who don't work for the Vatican but are training and competing with the team, as well as a handful of disabled athletes. The Vatican aims to sign similar agreements with the Italian Paralympic committee. CONI president Giovanni Malago welcomed the birth of the Vatican team, even though he acknowledged that it might one day deprive Italy of a medal. "Just don't get too big," he told Vati- can officials at the launch, recalling how an athlete from another tiny country — Majlinda Kelmendi — won Kosovo's first Olympic medal when she defeated Italian rival Odette Giuffrida in the final of the women's 52-kilogram judo event at the Rio de Janeiro Games. In recent years, the Vatican has fielded unofficial soccer teams and a cricket team that has helped forge relations with the Anglican church through an- nual tours in Britain. The track team, however, is the first one to have a legal status in Vatican City and to be an of- ficial part of the Italian sporting um- brella, able to compete in nationally and internationally sanctioned events and take advantage of the Italian na- tional coaching, scientific and medical resources. While St. John Paul II was known for his athleticism — he was an avid skier — Pope Francis is more of a fan, a long- time supporter of his beloved San Lor- ezo soccer team in Argentina. Vatican Athletics' first official out- ing is the Jan. 20 "La Corsa di Miguel" (Miguel's Race), a 10-kilometer race in Rome honoring Miguel Sanchez, an Argentine distance runner who was one of the thousands of young people who "disappeared" during the country's Dirty War. The choice is significant: Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was a young Jesuit superior in Argen- tina during the military dictatorship's crackdown on alleged leftist dissidents. EVERY once in a while the world of sport seems to provide the perfect metaphor for a national moment. It's no more than a sad coincidence, but when the U.K. tennis star Andy Murray announced tearfully on Fri- day that this month's Australian Open might be his last grand slam event, it seemed to wrap up a particular chap- ter of the Brexit saga. It was only shortly after Britain was shocked by the June 2016 vote to leave the European Union that Murray won his second Wimbledon title, cement- ing his place as one of the nation's greatest athletes. He's a Scot, and Scotland has a complicated relation- ship with the rest of the U.K., but from the moment he first won Wimbledon, ending a 77-year wait for a male cham- pion, he was embraced by all as an em- blem of national cool. It was just what the doctor ordered. Leavers were jubilant after the vote, but Remainers were disconsolate and some were in denial. Britain was still in shock. And Iceland had just deliv- ered England's worst humiliation in a World Cup soccer match since a loss to the U.S. in 1950. Earlier in the tour- nament, a reporter had asked Murray how he felt about being the nation's "last hope." "It's not that bad, is it?" Murray asked back. "Is it that bad?" That all depended where you were; on who you were. On the Sunday of the Wimbledon final, watching from the Royal Box overlooking the per- fectly manicured center court grass as Murray defeated Canadian Milos Raonic was David Cameron, the prime minister who fatefully sponsored the Brexit referendum. After Murray ac- knowledged the prime minister in his victory interview, the London crowd started booing. Murray came to the rescue. "You know," he declared, "I think playing in a Wimbledon final is tough, but I certainly wouldn't like to be a prime minister. It's an impossible job." A day later, a soon-to-be new prime minister would address voters in words that would come back to haunt her: "Brexit means Brexit. And we are going to make a success of it." It was a moment when some patriotic Remain- ers passed from denial to acceptance. Britain is a great country, they figured. Hadn't it been on the winning side of two world wars? It would show Europe how to leave with dignity. Even Mur- ray seemed to capture the mood. "It's time to unite and make the best of it," he said. Murray would go on that year to win Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro and then return to London to dominate the ATP World Tour Finals, featur- ing the world's top eight players. Peo- ple spoke of Murray Mania and his photo seemed to be everywhere; he was awarded a knighthood. But when Wimbledon came around in 2017, Murray was hurt and looked nothing like he had the year before. He lost to the towering American Sam Querrey in a five-set quarterfinal that was painful to watch at times. Suddenly, grit, guile and speed were no longer enough. What came afterward was surgery, rehabilitation and false starts leading up to Friday's emotional press con- ference in Melbourne. Things hadn't gone according to plan. While Murray said he hopes to retire after Wimble- don this year, he isn't sure he'll make it that far; he's been living with constant pain and it may get to be too much. The British Parliament is due to vote on a Brexit deal on Tuesday that is no- body's idea of a victory. There's even a chance that the U.K. will leave the EU after four decades without even work- ing out the terms of the divorce. Prime Minister Theresa May no longer says "success" and "Brexit" in the same sentence if she can help it. She's just trying, like the injured Murray, to stay in the game; it's no longer about lift- ing any trophy. Cameron was recently spotted surfing in Costa Rica. Back during that historic 2016 Wim- bledon, the Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer was circumspect about the Brexit vote. "I don't even want to think about the negotiations that go into it now for you guys," he told Britons presciently. "It's going to be years of negotiations." But then he threw in that signature optimism without which no athlete endures. "It's nice to have democracy here, and that you have an opportunity to vote," he said. "It's a beautiful thing." Vatican launches track team of Swiss Guards, nuns Brexit-Era Britain's 'last hope' bows to reality Members of the new Vatican Athletic sports association run during a photo opportunity outside St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. The Vatican announced the formation of the association, which includes athletes who work at the Vatican.