Matthew Portelli (Chess) and Malta’s Men U18 Pool Team are the winners of September’s Atlas Youth Athletes of the Month Award.

Matthew Portelli, 13 years old, won the Candidates Tournament after claiming the National Junior Championship title in March. He achieved excellent results, scoring 5.5 points out of seven matches, winning four and drawing three and remained unbeaten throughout. Impressively, he also managed to defeat four former Maltese champions. With these results, he qualified for the Final Stage of the National Chess Championship, where he placed third.

Matthew Portelli Chess

Meanwhile, Malta’s Men U18 Pool Team made up of Jake Castaldi, Chaylon Castaldi, Denzel Falzon and Nick Muscat became World Champions for the third consecutive time. They went through the final after beating Northern Ireland 8-7 and were crowned World Champions after beating South Africa 8-4.

Malta U/18 Pool Team

The Atlas Youth Athlete of the Month Award was presented to the winners by Matthew von Brockdorff, Managing Director and CEO, together with Robert Micallef, Chief Commercial Officer of Atlas Insurance. The Malta Sports Journalists Association was represented by President Antvin Monseigneur and General Secretary Joanna Camilleri.

This award is a joint initiative of the Malta Sports Journalists Association and Atlas Insurance. The adjudicating panel of this award takes note of all the youths’ achievements of the month under review and at the same time it invites local sport associations and federations to send in their nominations for consideration if they feel that any of their under-21 athletes have distinguished themselves during that month. All the monthly winners are eligible for the annual award.

Nominations for this award may be sent via email to info@maltasportsjournalists.com. The rules and regulations of the award can be viewed on the website www.maltasportsjournalists.com