Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/823773
maltatoday SUNDAY, 14 MAY 2017 Sport 60 FORMULA 1 Nikol Micallef and Barry Farrugia represent MYTA at an International Triathlon Training Camp in Spain THE Malta Triathlon Federa- tion, in its continuous quest to offer the best of possibilities and opportunites to the athletes of the Malta Youth Traithlon Academy - MYTA, has estab- lished an agreement with the European Triathlon Union to have its promising athletes at- tending international youth training camps to improve their level of play. In the past 4 years, there were already 10 different young triath- letes who participated in these training camps. This year is no different as the young 'enfante prodige' of Maltese youth traithlon, Nikol Micallef was joined by MYTA coach Barry Farrugia in an inter- national youth triathlon train- ing camp in Alicante, Spain. This was not the first time for Micallef to attend such a camp as he has already been selected for a similar stage in Tiszaújváros, Hungary last summer. Micallef has been excelling not only in multisport races, but also in the single sport competitions, espe- cially in cycling. During his ses- sions with the MYTA, Micallef is trained under the attentive eye of Barry Farrugia who is a Level 2 licenced triathlon coach and who is part of the coaching team at the Academy. Micallef and Farrugia joined a team af around 30 other youth athletes and coaches from all over Europe in the training camp which was held in Ali- cante, Spain. Micallef states that 'I was very excited when I learned that I will be attending this camp, and more so that I would be ac- companied by my MYTA coach, Barry. My family made sure eve- rything was prepared to perfec- tion for this opportunity. When we arrived in Alicante I was as- tonished not only with the num- ber of athletes participating but more so with the high-quality of my counterparts. We were training practically three times a day, like professional athletes. We would start the day with a swimming session followed by a run. Then we usually went cycling in the late afternoon. The highlight of the camp was cycling inside a velodrome! It was a dream come true for me!' On his side, Coach Farrugia remarked that 'it was a great experience having the possibil- ity to coach a splendid group of athletes and sharing the knowl- edge of triathlon-training with the other coaches. I am truly grateful for the opportunity that the Federation and MYTA gave Nikol and myself, and I looking forward to share all I've learnt to the MYTA athletes in our train- ing sessions'. The Malta Youth Triathlon Academy - MYTA currently reclutes 35 athletes of various ages between 7 and 15. Training is done primarily at the Kirkop Sports Complex and the Na- tional Pool Complex and ath- letes have three sessions a week. The MYTA project is supported heavily by SportMalta and is part of the latter's sports-pro- grammes offered in its premises. MYTA will be once again re- cluting new young athletes from 7 years upwards for the sum- mer 2017 programme. More in- formation can be obtained via info@triathlonmalta.org and 79037933, or by visiting the of- ficial MYTA facebook page : https://w w w.facebook.com/MY- TAtriMLT/