Gerada and Makowski third in doubles competition

Simon Gerada and Andrzej Makowski won their second consecutive medal in the Andorra 2005 GSSE when yesterday they placed joint third in the doubles at the Encamp Sports Pavilion.

The Malta pair, who earlier this week claimed the team's event title in brilliant fashion, started the tournament in style.

First they beat the Monaco pair Andre and Milliand 3-1 and then had the better of Frommelt and Marxer, of Liechtenstein, 3-0.

Malta then suffered the first of two upsets in the tournament when Gerada and Makowski had to bow to eventual gold medal winners Iceland (Hardarson and Stephensen) in a thrilling encounter, 3-2.

They soon recovered from this upset with a comfortable 3-0 success over Andorra's Lara Sanchez and Chalais Rodriguez to stay in contention for a top three placing.

However, gold medal hopes were dashed in the next match when Gerada and Makowski lost to Cyprus's Serafimov and Talavanov 3-0.

The clash against Bast and Simon, of Luxembourg, was vital for classification purposes. Another slip-up would have cost the Malta team the bronze medal but that was not to be as Gerada and Makowski duly delivered, winning the match 3-1.

Malta won their remaining group match against San Marino duo Tentoni and Vannucci 3-0 to place third overall along with Luxembourg who also took bronze. Iceland's Hardarson and Stephensen finished first ahead of Serafimov and Talavanov, of Cyprus.

This morning Gerada and Makowski will be after more medals when they play in the semi-finals of the singles competition.

Having topped their respective groups, the Malta players have avoided each other in the last four and will be looking to meet each other in the gold medal final.

Makowski will be testing his wits against Luxembourg's top player Airlindo De Sousa while Gerada will be facing Iceland's Stephensen in the other semi-final.

While Makowski is making his GSSE debut, Gerada has already contested a men's singles final in San Marino 2001. On that occasion he lost to Trajan Ciociu of Luxembourg. Two years later in Malta he had to be content with a bronze medal.

Final standings:
1. Iceland; 2. Cyprus; 3.(=) Malta; 3.(=) Luxembourg; 5. San Marino; 6. Monaco; 7. Liechtenstein; 8. Andorra.