BEZZINA Eleanor

General
WORK AND SPORT
She has worked at the University of Malta and says she has had to balance her working and sporting commitments. "I cannot consider myself a professional athlete since I work full-time at the university, but I give great importance to sport. I try to time-manage my working commitments with target shooting commitments. I believe that in life one has to set priorities and make sacrifices to achieve goals. Target shooting, being a sport of precision and high accuracy, needs a lot of concentration. The mental preparation for this sport is fundamental and requires a good effort since it's not every day that I would be in the same state of mind, such as after a challenging day at work, or because of personal issues." (lovinmalta.com, 20 Jun 2021; maltatoday.com.mt, 17 Mar 2019; University of Malta Facebook page, 31 May 2013)

INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION
She says the sport has benefited from her being named 2018 Sportswoman of the Year in Malta and hopes to inspire future generations of Maltese shooters. "Gradually, target shooting has started being given importance [in Malta]. One can see the difference throughout the years [speaking in 2019]. I have to admit that I wasn't aware of pistol shooting myself before 2009, but now people ask what it entails and get interested in trying. A positive of being honoured with the title of Sportswoman of the Year is that it gave the sport even more exposure. One major difficulty we have locally is that sport is considered a hobby, something to do if we have extra time. In recent years improvements have been made, but much more needs to be invested in our youngsters in order to produce elite athletes. We need to think of sports as employment if we want athletes to make it to the Olympics and get good results." (independent.com.mt, 09 Aug 2020; maltatoday.com.mt, 17 Mar 2019)

EARLY DAYS
She practised tennis and horse riding as a child and then took up netball and water polo competitively. She began shooting in 2009. "I started with tennis and horse riding at the age of six, but then joined the RMF Birzebbuga netball team where I played for 19 years. Playing as part of the national team and competing abroad was an honour. At the same time, for three years, I joined the San Giljan water polo team. The atmosphere of a water polo match is really enjoyable. Today [speaking in 2020] I practise an individual sport, which I sometimes find a bit hard since I miss the spirit of a team, though shooting is giving me great satisfaction." (independent.com.mt, 09 Aug 2020)