Known As: Ishmael
Born: 26th July 1981
Country of Birth: Malta
Height: 185cm
Weight: Somewhere in the 80s (Kg) - Too Heavy!!
Favourite Endurance Ride: South Niedersachsen, Germany
Favourite Mountain Bike Circuit: Anything that's as mentally challenging as it is physically
Favourite Road Racing Terrain: Short, rugged hills with fast rugged straights and high speed racing kermesse circuits
Favourite Music: Anything that makes me smile
Favourite Food: Anything healthy and natural
Favourite Drink: Exotically flavoured sports drinks
2001 - Mountain Bike Sports National Champion
- Road Racing Seniors National Champion
2002 - Mountain Bike Elite National Points Series Champion
2003 - Mountain Bike Elite National Points Series Runner-Up
2004 - Mountain Bike Elite National Points Series Champion
- Mountain Bike Elite Summer Cup Series Runner-Up
- Road Racing Elite Santa Maria Sprint Race Win
- First Mountain Bike Elite U.C.I. Points & Ranking
2005 - Road Racing Elite Gharb Criterium Race Win
2006 - Road Racing Australia Club Criterium Race Win
2007 - Road Racing King of the Sprint Award, ShangHai Green Stage Criterium Race
Ishmael Muscat, born on a hot Summer day in 1981, is the elder of two brothers in a family of four. Raised and educated in a private English College in the South of Malta, Ishmael was no keen sportsman.
Built big and heavy, his favourite past-times did include doing a variety of sports and mischievous experiments that got him into trouble at school. He was known for being full of energy and ideas and for making a mess out of his school uniform in his early school years.
Ishmael rode his first bicycle at an early age but was deprived of riding his BMX bike frequently because it was then situated in the garage about a kilometre away from his home. At school, sports was not his 'forte'. Football, basketball, baseball, athletics and cycling all formed part of his so-called sporting activities but he never really excelled in any sport because of his lack of seriousness and unacceptable body weight.
Ishmael went on to study Accounting and English at an Advanced Level and was awarded Malta's Matriculation certificate with an overall grade A with 90% points achieved. He flair for the English language was to be remarkably noticed when he was 1 of 13 students to achieve an A in MATSEC's 1999 English Advanced Level examination, a feat that few have achieved!
After the Summer of 1999, Ishmael Muscat was also an acclaimed T.E.F.L. English teacher and has been teaching English to foreigners since the Spring of 2000.
It was also in the Autumn of 1999 that Ishmael entered the University of Malta and later graduated in Commerce in 2002 with majors in Accountancy and Management. He continued his studies further and in 2004 he graduated in Accountancy with Honours and is now a fully-qualified Accountant!
Serving as an Auditor for one of the world's largest accounting firms for one year, Ishmael decided to call it a day after a year of an uncomfortable lifestyle. In October 2005, Ishmael enrolled back into University and read a Master of Business Adminstration (M.B.A.) as full-time student. Between his studies and during his University holidays, Ishmael worked as an Accountant with a small firm based in Malta. Wanting to pursue a career in Business Administration, Ishmael left the firm and taught Business English classes part-time until he finished his M.B.A. thesis.
Finding a job in the Eastern region of China, Ishmael managed to complete his M.B.A. thesis two and a half months before the deadline date in order to leave for China as soon as was possible. This meant completing the bulk of his thesis during his Winter Holidays in Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria. All this hard work paid off, with his thesis' grade being very good indeed. Ishmael is set to receive his post-graduate honours later this year.
Ishmael Muscat currently works and lives in China and pusues a career in relation to Business Administration.
Racing
The racing connection started off in the Autumn of 1999 when Ishmael was always on the lookout for any cyclists that would join him for a brief bicycle ride. In November 1999, Ishmael came across the Malta Mountain Bike Association and despite being taken for a wet and muddy first-time ride he was to take up the sport seriously over the next few months.
In 2000, Ishmael was just a recreational rider, that was developing his core muscle strength on the bike. He had done no serious sporting activity earlier and found it relatively hard to compete against other athletes that had been doing other muscular-building activities before they entered the competitive world of cycling and mountain bike racing. Later that year, he also discovered the world of road racing and was to buy his high-tech road bike some weeks later.
Having spent countless amounts of time and money on bicycles and training, Ishmael was to take up racing with a serious attitude as from the end of the year 2000 (Season 2001). In November 2000, Ishmael had a negative start to the 2001 Racing Season with a torn left shoulder ligament but was to become both Malta Mountain Bike National Champion in the Sports category and Malta Road Racing National Champion in the Seniors category in 2001!
Since then, Ishmael Muscat has become an Elite-level racer and has formed part of both the Maltese Mountain Bike and Road Racing National Teams and has competed in various countries on his own initative.
His Elite-level Palmares includes two Malta Mountain Bike National Points Series titles (2002 and 2004), runner-up in 2003, 2004 runner-up in the Mountain Bike Summer Cup Racing Series, several wins and countless podium places in various Mountain Bike races as well as a win and several podium places in a number of road races and individual time-trials. The most recent racing achievement came at the end of the 2004 Racing Season when Ishmael finally managed to achieve his first-ever International mountain bike racing points and international ranking when he raced on his own initiative in a number of races in Croatia.
Most of the 2005 Racing Season has been quite disappointing with the exception of some good early season races. Ishmael had to succumb to a high degree of stress that affected his training and racing. He did have a few good race results later on in the year but it was far from the level he was at a year earlier.
The 2006 Racing Season got off to an excellent start with a Club Criterium win in Traralgon while on training camp in Australia for 38 days. In 2006, his road racing in Malta has, however, been plagued by various problems ranging from sickness to equipment failure. Nevertheless, Ishmael managed to finish a credible 2nd in the Maltese Zurrieq Championship Race!
The 2007 season saw Ishmael start his racing season later than usual due to relocating to China. His first race in May reflected that more ground work needed to be done. Having travelled to Hong Kong and NanJing for racing purposes, Ishmael was disappointed to find out that he travelled their for nothing since inclement weather cancelled race organisers' racing plans. Nevertheless, Ishmael managed to win the King of the Sprint Award in ShangHai's Green Stage Criterium Race in early Summer.
Character
One of Ishmael's strongest character traits has been said to be his faithfulness and his clear and open character. He has often been described as strong, muscular and adaptable. Most of the time, Ishmael takes what life has to give but doesn't necessarily like it, strives to be content and optimistic and aims to be financially independent.
His character has been described as wanting love and affection, disliking loneliness and is a passionate lover. He also often finds that he needs to be needed. However, he can be quick-tempered at times but tends to calm down in a matter of minutes. Some negative traits include being a bit unruly and careless but is generally a nice person on the whole.
Over the years, Ishmael has also been widely appraised for loving to gain knowledge about a variety of interesting areas.
In addition to the above, an interesting character test closely mirrored Ishmael's character. It was quoted as saying that others see him as fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical and always interesting. He's also someone who's constantly in the centre of attention but is sufficiently well-balanced not to let it go to his head. People also see him as kind, considerate and understanding. Finally, Ishmael's a person who'll always cheer people up and help them out when necessary.
Besides cycling and mountain biking, Ishmael follows a number of sports. He's a keen Chelsea football club supporter as well as being a Giancarlo Fisichella Formula 1 supporter. He also follows the various winter sporting disciplines amongst other sports.