Skaters, Freerunners And Street Sport Athletes Show Off Their Skills In Msida Skate Jam
Skaters, BMX riders, street sport athletes and freerunners headed to Msida’s Skatepark over the weekend to attend the Malta Street Sport Association and the Malta Skateboarding Association’s latest event.
Their first event of the year brought together BMX, Skateboarding, Scooter and Inline Skate athletes, alongside parkour, graffiti and hip hop enthusiasts, celebrating a shared passion for their sport and culture.
These organisations work to organise Malta’s extensive street sport community whilst promoting the potential benefits that street sport can bring to young people, as an exciting and enjoyable way of performing physical activity and living a healthier lifestyle.
Although conditions were far from ideal on Sunday – it was cold, not particularly sunny and dark rainclouds could be seen approaching from afar – close to a hundred participants and spectators congregated in the Msida Skatepark.
A BMX Best Trick competition took place, coronating Jake Zammit as its winner.
Unfortunately for those on four wheels, the skateboarding competition was cancelled due to rain.
Though skaters were disappointed, managing to hold the BMX competition was a blessing given that the Jam had already been postponed due to rain the weekend before.
Their meeting was not solely centred around the Jam. Once the worst of the storm had passed, MSSA and MSA members moved on to a discussion of the “Future of Street Sport”.
They discussed the work they have done in the past years and how since 2019 they have been working hand in hand to improve the Malta’s Street Sport scene. If successful, they believe that they will encourage more young people to use street sport to prevent straying towards “bad habits”.
BMX and Skateboarding have become Olympic sports in recent years. Both the MSA and MSSA say they are committed – through Skate Jams and other events – to promoting their sports and identifying talent early.
This way, they will have the best chance of ensuring that Maltese BMX and Skateboarding athletes will be able to participate in Olympic Qualifications.
For the first time ever last year, MSA organised the first National Skateboarding Competition. Along with being a requirement for the selection of skateboarding athletes for participation in the Olympic qualifications, the event saw masses of local skaters attend.
These included some Maltese people living abroad, who flew to Malta to participate in the competition.
Prior to the national competition last year, MSSA organised the first Urban Sports Festival in Malta at Birżebbuġa Pretty Bay.
The festival welcomed over 160 participants, 30 of whom were foreigners who flew to Malta to take part in sports activities ranging from BMX, Skateboarding, Parkour, Breaking, Scooter, 3×3 Basket and Street Work Out.
This event was part of an Erasmus+ Sports project called United Through Urban Sports. The final part of the project convinced partners to organise the festival here, so that Malta will be seen as an ideal destination for sporting events such as these.
MSSA and MSA aspire to securing the success of street sport in Malta. They aim to one day send athletes to represent the nation in either BMX, Skateboarding or Breaking at the Olympics.
Follow MSSA and MSA on social media for more updates.
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