Mattea & Samuel Ciantar – SAC’s own Sports Twins
Since this edition of The Voice is the one preceding the much-awaited holiday of Valentine’s Day, it is also expected that our articles accommodate this theme within the usual ideas. The Sports’ Column is no exception. Oftentimes, when we mention Valentine’s Day, the first thoughts that crops into our minds is romance and couples. However, we’re taking the true meaning of Valentine’s a step further in this article — the day doesn’t just symbolise the bond between two people who are in a relationship, but it also symbolises the fraternal bond between siblings in a family, a bond which is usually taken fore granted. This is especially true between Mattea and Samuel Ciantar, two siblings, who do not just share the same date of birth, the same school and the same academic subjects but, also share a common passion they have for challenging sports. This talent started developing in their infancy.
Unlike most of our usual athletes, the Ciantar siblings’ were introduced to their respective sports during their teenage years; with Mattea having been in the Professional Sailing Sector for the past 4 years while her twin Samuel started Parkour and Free-Running 2 years ago.
Part of the B’Bugia Sailing Club, Mattea Ciantar has been practicing two-handed sailing, that is with a partner, using the RS-Feva boat model, a model which is still quite new to the Sailing Sector which bests suits young sailors of Mattea’s age and younger. In fact, our Aloysian female athlete has been part of the Malta RSF Association for most of her career. With regards to training, Mattea Ciantar follows quite a particular routine. While she performs an hour of basic physical fitness routines at home with her twin daily, her actual training sessions are targeted to improve skills at sea — all of which all crammed into her weekends. She spends 10 hours of her Saturdays and sometimes even of her Sundays doing physical fitness practice with her teammates, getting briefed by her coach on the various conditions in which they’d be sailing and being introduced to different techniques which might come in handy, and actual sailing — which takes up only 5 hours of the 10-hour session, and final debriefing — where analysis of the navigation skills and sailing techniques used in relevance to the actual conditions in relation to the predicted ones takes place. Apart from all this, this committed athlete has also been taking up professional swimming for 2 and a half hours twice a week with B’Bugia ASC, in order to further improve her muscle strength and endurance instead of performing weight training at a gym.
Mattea’s commitment and dedication has left its results – this is because despite having been in the sailing sector for just 4 years, she can still boast of a variety of experiences she has had both on a national and international level, where maybe her most notable experiences were the ones she had abroad. In April 2012, she attended a 4-day training camp in Spain specifically intended to train the athletes for World Championships, just after her first year of practicing the sport. However, her most “shocking yet thrilling experiences” as described by Mattea Ciantar herself were without a doubt her participation in the 2012 RS-Feva World Championships in England, where she made it to the Silver Field competing against 180 boats coming from 14 different nations from all over Europe, Australia and Canada, followed by her successive participation in the 2013 RS-Feva World Championships in Italy, in which she improved. She placed in the 20th in just one year, and ranked 60th from 180 competing boats.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of Mattea’s sport was the theoretical aspect of it. Our female Aloysian sailor gets all enthusiastic as she explains that instead of hindering her study progress, her studies actually support her sport and therefore it allows her to apply academic hypothesis to reallife situations:
“Sailing is an extremely expensive and physically demanding sport. It doesn’t just require physical fitness but it also requires constant concentration and theories to apply ... this is where my academic subjects come in, as we have to use physics and maths in order to determine wind speeds and directions, identify angles needed for specific navigation techniques, as well as analyze and solve problems regarding the different currents and movements of the water body in which we’d be sailing. So despite having a lot to manage, one thing motivates me for the other.”
After that, our interview shifted towards the male twin Samuel Ciantar who was quick in getting us in the spirit of his beloved sport. He explains how he forms part of the “Keep Them Together” organisation, the only organisation of its kind in Malta and how he specialises in the branch of Parkour involved with flips, twists and all that concerns the art of motion, also known as Free-Running. When asked about his reasons for starting such a relatively new sport, Samuel’s answer is quite the one of a young adventurer:
“I like to challenge myself, push myself to the limits and expand them – Parkour, especially Free-Running offers all of that – it’s self-conditioning, enforces self-discipline, concentration and improvisation as well as develops the creative aspect of motion.”
With regards to training, apart from the daily physical sessions with his sister, he introduces us to his world of Calisthenics where he focuses on doing body weight training instead of gym weights, as this specific kind of training makes it easier for the muscles to heave the whole body in all kinds of motions. Apart from that, twice a week during weekends, Samuel spends whole days with his team-mates in the Mosta EU-funded Park warming up doing easy moves, exchanging ideas of different moves and techniques with the more advanced Parkourers, further practicing different stances and moves to perfect them and then doing some related physical exercises on going home. Samuel has already taken part in the local event of Parkour Gens – a whole day where all Parkourists meet up to exhibit all of their talent. However, Samuel Ciantar also brings up the drawback of pursuing professional sports here in Malta. Our Aloysian Parkourist’s experiences both locally and abroad are still very lacking, not because of his lack of skill, or his short period of training this sport professionally, but because being an athlete training a sport in its infancy here in Malta, local competitions are very rare, while when it comes to international experiences, lack of sponsors makes it extremely difficult for students to travel on their sport. However, he doesn’t give up hope and he expresses his intentions to participate in the Krap Invaders competition in Italy in the years to come.
On closing our interesting interview with these Aloysian twins, we asked them about what they dream to achieve and get out of their respective sports. Having a clear perception of their present and future, they provide us with a similar answer further proving the bond between the two — both opt to aim for things which are within their reach, even though the dreams of following their sports careers as their main job is still an idea which never ceases to cross their minds. While Mattea is aiming to take her sport to a higher level by improving her sailing on a larger boat model in order to take part in competitions like the 64-ROLEX Race, Samuel is aiming to help his sport flourish in Malta and to improve his level and advance it enough to take part in sponsored high level competitions such as the ones organised by Red-Bull, abroad. Unlike our usual athletes, these twins also take approach their future careers in a different way – their passion for their sports and the rarity of it has made these two Aloysian athletes consider to use their potential not just to pursue further titles and medals but to invest it in other Maltese athletes who wish to practice the sport – Mattea hopes in becoming a coach in the two-hand sailing sector while her twin Samuel intends to become free-running instructor.
While we as “The Voice” wish the best of luck to these two second years in both their sports careers and their studies, we would like to wish a Happy Valentine’s Day to all our Aloysian readers and remind that the fraternal bond is a very special gift which deserves to be accounted for, at least on a immensely special day like this.
We gave it its due importance – what about you?
Jacqueline Grech Licari
