Two gold medals for Malta on final day

Yesterday was a glorious day for Malta in the Mediterranean Challenge Cup VIII, organised by the MTBA at the Eden SuperBowl.

Malta's team of four stole the limelight in the most important event of the tournament, the team competition, taking gold in a fantastic display of team play. Malta was represented by Kenneth Arpa, Mark Spiteri, Sue Abela and Lorraine Casha.

As if not satisfied with that, Abela produced one of the best individual performances of her brilliant career, shooting a 1,374 total over the six games which converts to a tremendous 229 game average.

That was enough to give her a second gold in the ladies' 'all events' division, which had been held by Greek bowler Anastasia Rovithaki since the first edition.

In the men's category, Arpa secured bronze in the men's all events on the very last shot of the tournament, beating Cypriot Costas Kyriakou into fourth place by a mere three pins over a total of 18 games.

The teams from all eight participating nations kicked off at 9 a.m. with their first of two three-game series, and the Maltese foursome got off to a flying start with a 785 in game one, second only to Israel's 819 score. The lead for Malta wasn't long in coming however, as an excellent 918 in game two placed them at the top of the table.

A 754 in the third kept them there on a 2,457 interim total, 170 ahead of the Israelis on 2,287 with Greece lying third on 276.

Abela put in a 666 series, while Arpa managed a 640 followed by Spiteri on 584 and Casha on 567.

After a break for lunch, Malta's confidence was high as they never faltered from the top spot throughout their 786-813-728 series, making sure that the gold medals were secured.

Team Malta placed second overall in the medals table with their two golds, one silver and three bronze medals, second to Spain who finished with two golds and two silvers.

Malta's representatives can be extremely proud of their achievements as not only did they scoop the most medals (six), but they also pocketed gold in the two most prestigious categories, the team event as well as Abela's all events title.

Malta remains top of the medals table for all eight editions of the Medicup, leading with 18 golds to Greece's 17.