Gerada, Makowski avoid each other in semi-finals

Simon Gerada and Andrzej Makowski are well on course to hand Malta a second gold medal in Andorra.

Yesterday, the two made sure they avoided each other in the semi-finals of the singles competition after topping their respective groups with maximum points.

On Wednesday, minutes after combining perfectly with Gerada for a gold medal in the teams event, Makowski won his opening two matches. Yesterday, he made sure to stay in top form and collected five other wins in the round robin Group A.

Makowski beat Romain Loulergue (Monaco) 3-0, Marco Vannucci (San Marino) 3-1, Gudmundur Stephensen (Iceland) 3-2, Dominik Marxer (Liechtenstein) 3-0, and Patrick Chalais Rodriguez (Andorra) 3-0 to finish top with 14 points.

His opponent in tomorrow's semi-finals is Airlindo De Sousa, of Luxembourg. He finished second in Group B behind Gerada.

Like Makowski, Gerada chalked up five other victories yesterday. He beat Florian Prosper (Monaco) 3-0, Sylvain Franceschi (Andorra) 3-0, Riccardo Tentoni (San Marino) 3-0, Peter Frommelt (Liechtenstein) 3-1, and De Sousa 3-1.

In 2001, Gerada lost to Trajan Ciociu, of Luxembourg, in the singles final. Tomorrow, he faces Stephensen in the semi-final.

Grech eliminated

Johanna Grech, Malta's only player in the women's table tennis competitions, was yesterday ousted from the singles event after finishing outside the top two positions in the qualifying group.

Grech won two matches from the five played. She beat Gudrun Bjornsdottir, of Iceland, in her opening match 3-1 but then lost to Louiza Kourea (Cyprus) 3-0, Carole Hartman (Luxembourg) 3-0 and Chimei Yan (San Marino) 3-0.

Grech's other group win came at the expense of home player Manuelle Bertrand, 3-0.