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Wilfred Sultana - still determined to make a comeback

With snooker player John Parrott when in Malta to participate in the European Open (1996), a ranking tournament eventually won by Parrott himself.

The past five years have been a nightmare for sport enthusiast Wilfred Sultana. Visits to leading hospitals in London, New York and Paris have still failed to make a clear diagnosis for his unknown illness. But he tells RAY ABDILLA that he is still confident of bouncing back.

How did you get involved in sport?

Sport was probably the major pastime to people of my age in our childhood and even our youth. There were no video games or computers, black-and-white television was an amazing novelty‚ and was not widely available in Maltese households, and definitely the style of upbringing was completely different.

As a young boy what sports did you like most and what was your first experience in sport?

Like most kids, primarily football. But I was always an active student, getting involved in school activities, mainly football, table tennis and drama. I was chosen to form part of the Malta Schoolboys International football team, which participated in the FISEC Tournament. I played left-back against Spain, Belgium and France alongside Louis Arpa, Joe Serge, Frankie Falzon, Charles Miceli, and Ronnie Saliba.

With Peppi Azzopardi of TV talk show Xarabank during a programme related to medicine and rare diseases featured last year.

Our coaches at the time (if I recall correctly) were Johnny Calleja, Louis Borg and the late Joe Griffiths. In 1964 I won the table tennis Pre-YCW Malta Championship. In 1972 I won the National Children Drama Festival, organised by the FSOBIANS, with a play I wrote and directed entitled Il Pispirellu. I always enjoyed being active and getting involved in anything challenging.

Sailing was one of your favourite pastimes. Do you still follow the sport?

My association with yachting started when in 1966/67 I got my first job on leaving school as a clerk typist in the general service. Seconded to the Malta Government Tourist Board I was assigned to the newly established yachting centre section. This was my first connection with the yachting environment. Gradually I became involved in yachting/sailing activities through direct connection with yachtsmen, the yacht club, and the yachting business community.

The lack of available printed material on yachting at the time triggered me to venture into publishing yachting/sailing magazines following an encouraging new‚experience I had had with the publishing of football publications in the early seventies.

Today my only connection with yachting is when friends invite me to join them on their boats on day trips.

How did your work with the press and media evolve?

My association with the press started as a result of the publications I used to issue. On publishing a magazine I used to prepare a press handout which I used to deliver personally to all the media. From the very start of my involvement with the press I always believed in maintaining a personal direct relationship. Gradually I developed an inclination towards press reporting and public relations while I managed to build up a sound working relationship with the press.

My first publication came about as a follow-up to another activity I got involved in. In 1970 a friend of mine was organising a competition, forecasting results and winners, on the occasion of the Mexico World Cup. He asked me to type the details on a large sheet. While preparing this material I thought of the possibility of securing a small advert or two in order to have the information printed nicely on four-page leaflet instead of a typed A-4 sheet. The 4-page leaflet materialised into a 24-page magazine entitled The Way To The Finals‚ and eventually into my first ever publication.

In the early eighties I was asked to be PR officer to an international windsurfing (Ten Cat) event held in Malta. This was the beginning of a long and happy association with the sport of windsurfing. As a follow-up to this experience I published a local windsurfing magazine Wishbone and eventually retained the same name when I decided to organise my own event. This led to the Wishbone International Championships, the International Malta-Sicily Windsurf Race, the Comino Regatta, and many others. In those years I established sound relationship with an Italian windsurfing organisation, which led to Maltese boardsailors being invited to participate in the highly popular Windsurfing Tour of Italy (or as it was known, the Giro d‚Italia di Windsurf).

By nature I am a positive and optimistic person and I tend to enjoy all that I am doing as I always look at the bright side of things. When faced with gloomy situations I try to be realistic; I try to rectify the situation or, just as in the case of my illness, I try to make the best of circumstances.

Is there any particular sporting event that you will never forget and which international activities have you most enjoyed?

I think probably the Malta-Sicily Windsurf Race. From a modest two-man experimenting crossing in 1982, this developed into a world-known multi-national keenly contested event, which became acknowledged as "the longest single-stage windsurf race (93KM) in the world". One particular edition was that of 1989 which was contested by 10 competitors hailing from 10 different countries. The winner of this edition was Bruce Kendall (New Zealand) who, prior to his participation and triumph in the Malta event, had attained the highest possible sports recognition - a Gold Medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

This event also presented me with two other significant satisfactions. One was the strong and sound relationship that prevailed amongst the organising committee, which saw us through all 10 events with almost all the same members. Secondly, the enthusiastic backing extended by Maltese yachtsmen who made up the event’s supporting fleet.

One other particular instant I vividly remember was watching snooker’s "Whirlwind" Stephen Hendry potting a maximum tournament break of 147 at the final of the 2001 Rothmans Grand Prix. This was the eighth of his career and the first ever registered in Malta’s long snooker history. I consider my involvement in the organisation of professional snooker, which Joe Zammit and Richard Balani introduced me to in 1994, as a thrilling experience.

Which international sporting activities do you enjoy most?

Quite a lot, but mainly football.

In your opinion who was the best local sportsman/sportswoman of all time?
It is most difficult to make such a judgement when one is comparing personalities of different disciplines and of different times. Conditions and facilities are constantly improving; a factor which is making higher standards more attainable.

What do you think about the standard of sport in Malta?

Sports have become a wealth of competitive activity where big money is involved. An industry, I would say, where money talks and money dictates. Most of our athletes practise sports as a hobby or on part-time basis, and such an approach and the limitation of funds undoubtedly restrict their evolution in the matter. A position development on the local sports scenario is the increasing number of promising young Maltese sportsmen who are plucking up courage and trying their fortune abroad.

Do you think that sports people are treated well in Malta?

Here again one has to look at the whole scenario; commitment, facilities, finances, opportunities and proficient management. This is Malta and one has to keep one’s expectations within the limitations of our resources. It is a question of finding a balance between commitment, expectations and available opportunities and finances.

Unfortunately some time ago you fell ill. How did you feel then and how are you feeling now?

Admittedly, the past five years have been a nightmare for me and my family. Despite five visits to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, DNA tests carried out at Sloan-Ketterling Cancer Center, New York and at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and even tests at a Hospital for Nuclear Medicine, no clear diagnosis has so far been made of my illness.

The tests have included a brain biopsy and seven CSF (lumbar puncture) tests. The most difficult aspects to deal with have been the exhausting illness anxiety and the winding up of all my activities, both business and social, and being constrained to retire from active public life. However, in these difficult moments I was never left to feel lonely. Support and encouragement came from various quarters - my family, the medical team responsible for my case, a good number of friends and the Hospice Movement. This was really helpful and undoubtedly contributed to keeping a positive frame of mind.

There were moments when I was really low, when I couldn’t care less whether I lived or I died. I would ask myself, why me? When my condition began to improve and, thanks to the Hospice Movement, I began to attend hydrotherapy sessions at the Park of Friendship swimming pool, I realised I was asking myself the wrong question.

Making regular use of the pool were infants, teenagers, and people in their prime age whose sufferings in some cases were far worse than mine. Here I realised that a more fitting question would be ‘Why not me?’

Life is beautiful, but it can be cruel. No one is immune to severe illnesses, which apart from the health grief, bring about other hardships including ones of a psychological and economic nature. Such a drastic change of lifestyle unfortunately negatively affects the whole family. One positive aspect is that Maltese society in general is very conscious of the hardships brought about by health problems and there exists a strong sentiment of solidarity in this regard.

Today I feel there has been some improvement in my condition yet the ambiguity of my illness keeps me on edge as to what’s happening next and whether progress is going to continue, stop or fall behind.

I have faith that active life is not yet over for me. I miss it and I long to be back.