Maltese shooter William Chetcuti yesterday emulated his third placing at the Manchester Commonwealth Games four years ago when he won a bronze medal in the double trap competition at the Melbourne Gun Club in Lilydale.

Coming only days after Rebecca Madyson took silver in the women's trap event on Tuesday, Chetcuti's bronze medal gave Malta its best ever tally in Commonwealth Games history.

At the end of the opening three rounds of the double trap yesterday, Chetcuti, 21, seemed well on track to challenge for the gold medal as he finished second in the standings with 139 clays, only two short of leader Stevan Walton, of England, and two better than Indian Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who was third at that stage.

Rodney Micallef, Malta's other competitor in double trap, failed to make the final when he totalled 124 from 150 (40, 42 and 42) to finish 15th overall.

In the final barrage, Chetcuti, one of the favourites for the gold medal at the Commonwealths on the back of his excellent results on the international circuit over the past 12 months, could only hit a modest 40 for an aggregate tally of 179.

It was not enough for Chetcuti to claim one of the top two positions as he finished third, two clays behind Rathore who retained the title he won in Manchester four years ago, with a total of 181. Byron Swanton, of South Africa, placed second with 180, just one point more than Chetcuti.

Walton, dominant in the qualifying rounds, hit a meagre 29 of his last 50 targets to hand Rathore victory and see his chances of a medal evaporate before his eyes.

"I've never seen that ever. I was feeling sick for him in the end," Australia's 1996 Olympic champion Russell Mark, who finished fourth, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Chetcuti's total yesterday was 10 points less than his bronze-medal winning tally in Manchester. On that occasion, the young Maltese shooter had finished two clays short of gold-medallist Rathore (191) and one behind Mark.

"I'm pleased to have retained the bronze medal I won in Manchester four years ago," Chetcuti, who finished second in a World Cup shoot in Belgrade and fourth in the Dubai-held World Cup final last year, told The Times from Melbourne yesterday.

"I was facing some of the world's top shooters and competition for a place on the podium was very tight.

"Unfortunately, the clay target shooting machines did not work properly in the final barrage and I felt that some decisions from the judges hampered my performance.

"I had at least four clear 'no bird' calls (objections over the direction of the clays when released from the machine) that were rejected. Had one of those decisions gone in my favour, I would have contested a shoot-off for the silver. But that's part and parcel of shooting and you can do nothing about it."

Chetcuti has already turned his sights on his next competition, a World Cup shoot in China early next month. This will be the first time Chetcuti will compete in the Asian country and the event should prove useful in his run-up for the 2008 Beijing Games where he is expected to lead Malta's charge for an historic first medal in Olympic Games.

Malta's chef-de-mission Pippo Psaila declared himself pleased with the performance of Chetcuti in Melbourne, one that confirmed that he is well on course to fulfil the Malta Olympic Committee's ambition of challenging for a medal in the Beijing Olympics.

"This is another positive result for William," Psaila remarked. "Over the past three years, he has struck a great level of consistency, qualifying for the final barrage in each of the top-level competition he competed in.

"The final today turned out to be a close call. Chetcuti could have easily ended up as the gold medal winner had he shown more precision in the decisive stages of the barrage.

"My impression is that he needs to gain more international experience and that's why it's paramount that he continues to compete in top-level shoots on a regular basis."

MOC eyeing two shooting berths for Beijing

Psaila confirmed that it is the intention of the MOC to have Madyson and Chetcuti in their contingent for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. However, he admitted that there is still a lot of work to be done for these athletes to gain the go-ahead to compete in China in two years' time.

"It will not be easy for us to send two shooters to the Beijing Olympics," Psaila said. "The International Shooting Federation (ISF) provide one wild card, meaning that either William or Rebecca will have to achieve automatic qualification by winning one major ISF shoot.

"That makes it even more imperative for both shooters to keep improving in order to reach this target. To this end, I hope that we will receive more support not only from the government but also from private firms.

"We have two athletes who have the potential of winning an Olympic medal for Malta in Beijing. Thus, we have the responsibility to make sure that they are given the financial assistance to fulfil their potential."