Special Olympics team win five medals so far

The Maltese team at the Special Olympics World Summer Games has so far managed to win a gold, a silver and three bronze medals.

Charmaine Mifsud was the first to win a medal on Thursday, nabbing bronze in the 100 metres women's swimming medley.

Then, on Friday, Chris Gregory won a gold medal in the 50 metre freestyle despite the strong competition that he faced.

And Jonathon Borg and Alexia Wetz each won a bronze medal also in the 50 metre freestyle.

A silver medal was awarded to the bowling team, composed of Bjorn Tabone, Philip Gruppetta, Angele Azzopardi and Maria Spiteri, who classified in the second position, managing to surpass China with Hong Kong placing first.

The Maltese Ambassador for China, Karl Xuereb, followed the games closely and congratulated the Maltese competitors taking part.

The third edition of World Special Olympics Games kicked off spectacularly in the stadium of Shanghai on October 2 and will end on Thursday.

The official number of athletes participating in the games is 4,550 men and 632 women, while there are 2,303 coaches as well as 20,000 family members 40,000 volunteers. The age of participants varies between eight and 69 years. There are a total of 164 countries taking part.

Malta has one of the smallest contingents - 19 athletes accompanied by six coaches.. Special Olympics Malta is supported by Vodafone Malta Foundation.