Xuereb takes gold in 300m race
More medals for swimmers
FISEC International vice-president Louis Borg had a busy time yesterday presenting medals to Maltese swimmers, winners of podium-position places at the 58th FISEC Games which are taking place in Hungary.
However, the best result of the day was the one of Martina Xuereb in track and field.
She won a gold medal in the 300m race for girls in a time of 39.45 seconds. In the same race, Martina's sister Francesca was second.
The Xuerebs then teamed up with Alessandra Pace and Julienne Grech for another silver medal in the 4x100m race. Their time was 50.42 seconds. The more established Diane Borg was not 100 per cent fit after sustaining an injury.
Among the medal winners in the Kecskemet pool were Francesca Paolella, Nicole Cremona and Adrian Buttigieg.
Paolella was third in 100m freestyle and second in 100m breaststroke. Cremona was a medal winner in the 50m backstroke. In this event she clocked a new age group record of 33.02 seconds. Buttigieg was second in the 200m butterfly event.
Also yesterday, the basketball girls lost their second match from three outings. But, against the highly-quoted United States, Trudy Hopgood's girls went down fighting and lost 61-47.
Christine Grima potted 18 points for Malta. She was the team's top scorer against the formidable United States side, favourites to land the gold medal in Kecskemet.
In table tennis, the Malta doubles team suffered four defeats in succession yesterday.
They were at the end of close 3-2 final scorelines against Spain, France and Holland before going down to Romania 3-0.
In the final standings, France finished first ahead of Romania, Spain, Malta and Holland.
In the round robin tennis tournament, Clayton Zammit beat Jose Iziviado, of Spain, 6-4 6-7 6-2 but lost his next match to R. Renmertal, of Holland, 6-3 6-2.
Zammit then teamed up with Denzil Agius for a doubles victory over Duch pair Goetschoy-Hobb 6-4 6-7 6-3. In the same event, Gianni Selvaggi and Jean Paul Schembri lost to another Dutch duo, Rhenner/Moscen, 3-6 6-4 7-5.
In Futsal, the Maltese failed to avoid a third defeat in the tournament after an 11-8 defeat to Hungary. Today, they face Spain 'B'.
Malta's scorers against Hungary were Christian Cacciattolo (4), Luke Fenech (2), Andre Gove and Fen-drige Schembri.
Late on Saturday, the handball team was beaten by Spain 'B' 27-20.
Yesterday, the handball boys succumbed to a third upset, this time at the hands of Portugal - 40-29.
International meeting
Maltese officials, led by Bro. Martin Borg, yesterday attended an international FISEC meeting where some important topics were discussed.
Among these were the venues of the next three editions of the Games. Maastricht, in Holland, was proposed as the 2007 host country and Malta that of 2008.
In 2009, the Games could move to the other part of the globe as the California organisers are showing interest to play hosts.