Gozo 7 Swim Scandal: Neil Agius Says Epic Relay Was ‘Designed to Fail’ and Gozitans Deserve Better

**Gozo 7 Challenge “Designed to Fail” – Neil Agius Slams Organisers as Gozitan Swimmers Feel Snubbed**
*By Hot Malta Newsroom*

Sliema’s dawn training crowd was still rubbing sand off their feet when Neil Agius dropped the bombshell: last weekend’s Gozo 7 relay—hyped as the island’s first-ever 70 km circum-swim of sister-island Gozo—was “designed to fail from the start”. The Malta-to-Gozo record-holder, whose 2021 “Wave of Change” campaign turned him into a national eco-hero, told *Times of Malta* that safety shortcuts, opaque selection criteria and a last-minute route change “set swimmers up for disappointment and put lives at risk”.

Within minutes, Whatsapp groups connecting Valletta water-polo clubs, Xlendi diving centres and Nadur feast volunteers lit up. Gozitans felt the sting personally. “We waited 20 years for something big to be about Gozo, not just *near* Gozo,” said Marceline Bajada, whose St Lawrence boathouse offered free pasta to relay teams. “Then the swim is cancelled 26 hours in, and we hear it was never really possible? Kemm hu inġust.”

The logistics sounded heroic on paper: seven days, seven swimmer-changeovers, starting and finishing at Hondoq ir-Rummien, with checkpoints at Ramla, San Blas and Dwejra’s former Azure Window arch. Entry was capped at 21 Maltese nationals, each required to raise €3,000 for local environmental NGOs. But according to Agius, the organisers—start-up events company Island Xtreme—submitted a marine traffic plan that assumed continuous flat seas in April, ignored the Comino channel’s 1.2-knot spring drift and budgeted for only one safety RIB per three swimmers. “That’s not optimism, it’s negligence,” Agius said. “You can’t romanticise the Gozitan coastline if you haven’t spoken to the fishermen who know every whirlpool.”

Island Xtreme CEO Ryan Falzon denies the allegations, insisting the Armed Forces of Malta and Transport Malta had green-lit the route. When 50-knot Mistral winds arrived on Day 3, Falzon says the “safety-first” call was to abort, refund sponsors and donate the collected €42,000 to Nature Trust. Yet critics point out that the same forecasts were uploaded to Windy.com 72 hours earlier. “They sold us a postcard, not a plan,” commented veteran Gozitan coach Justin “Il-Bibi” Vella, who trained three teenagers picked for the relay. “My swimmers missed school exams for this. Now they think Gozo is only good for carnival photos, not serious sport.”

The episode taps into a deeper nerve: the perennial feeling that Malta’s northern island is treated as a scenic prop rather than a community with its own sporting infrastructure. Gozo has one 25-metre pool, closed since January for boiler repairs. Youngsters who want open-water coaching must catch the 5.45 a.m. ferry to Sliema, a ₡15 round trip that racks up faster than pool chlorine. “If Gozo 7 had worked, we could have lobbied for a permanent base in Xlendi Bay, maybe EU cohesion funds for kayaks, drones, lifeguard courses,” said Paula Muscat, Gozo Regional Council sports liaison. “Instead we’re back to square one, begging to use the secondary school yard for Zumba.”

Tourism operators also lost a post-Easter lifeline. Hotel occupancy spikes 18% whenever sporting events roll cameras, according to MTA stats. “We had fully booked farmhouses in Għasri,” lamented Ivan Refalo, president of the Gozo Hospitality Association. “Now guests are cancelling, saying ‘if the swim’s off, what’s the point?’ We’re back to discounting three-night packages.”

Agius, never one to rage without action, is proposing a swimmer-led task-force under the Malta Swimming Federation to vet future mega-swims. He wants minimum standards: a three-week weather window, medical officer on every support boat, compulsory Gozitan co-captains “because nobody reads the sea like someone whose grandfather fished it”. Wave of Change volunteers will host a free safety clinic at Marsalforn on 28 April, open to kayakers, divers and parents curious about rip currents.

For now, Gozo 7 joins a litany of ambitious archipelago stunts that promised Netflix glory but delivered Facebook apologies. Yet the backlash may ironically achieve what the swim itself did not: uniting Maltese and Gozitan athletes around a single demand—respect for the sea and the communities that live by it. As Agius put it while jogging past Balluta church, glittering with early-morning baptisms: “You can’t fake the finish line. Gozo deserves events that finish, not fantasies that flounder.”