William Chetcuti underlined his reputation as the best double trap shooter in GSSE with an imperious performance at the Olympic Shooting Range in Nicosia to hand Malta its first gold medal in the 2009 GSSE.

There was also joy for Team Malta in target shooting where William Vella won bronze to give the Malta Shooting Sport Federation a first ever medal in this discipline.

In double trap, Chetcuti was in a class of his own, hitting scores of 46, 49, 45 to top the qualifying board with an overall score of 140 - seven ahead of second-placed Stephanos Theodotous, of Cyprus.

San Marino's Maurizio Zonzini was third on 122.

Despite the comfortable advantage, Chetcuti maintained his focus in the barrage to fire another impressive 46 for an overall tally of 186. Theodotous was a distant second on 175 while Zonzini took bronze on 162.

Young shooter Derek Bonanno, who was making his debut in these Games, finished fifth on 146, four points behind Stylianos Stylianou, of Cyprus.

For Chetcuti, this was a third successive gold medal in the GSSE after the ones he won in Malta 2003 and Andorra 2005.

It was also his fourth straight medal in the Games as he had finished second in his first appearance in San Marino in 2001.

Speaking to the media after the medal ceremony, Chetcuti said he was relieved to have achieved what he had worked so hard for over the past two years.

"To win gold in the GSSE is a great feeling," said Chetcuti, who received messages of con-gratulations from several people among whom Parliamentary Secretary for Sport Clyde Puli and Mellieħa Mayor Robert Cutajar.

"The pressure is double when you are defending a title but today I was confident I could win a third gold medal at these Games.

"It's a pity that our sport will not be in the 2011GSSE schedule in Liechtenstein. But, during this period, I will be stepping up my preparations for the World Cup shoots where I want to achieve better results."

Vella's debut

Vella enjoyed an outstanding debut in GSSE competition.

Yesterday, he produced a solid performance in the qualifying round, targeting scores of 97, 97, 95, 92, 95 and 94 to reach the final in third place on 570.

In the final, Vella scored 98.8 points to finish with an accumulated 668.8, 5.6 points better off than fourth-placed Alexandros Patsalides, of Cyprus.

Home favourite Andreas Constantidou clinched gold with 677 ahead of Monaco's Eric Lanza, 673.3.

"We're absolutely thrilled with the results obtained by Chetcuti and Vella in this GSSE," MOC president Lino Farrugia Sacco said.

"Chetcuti was outstanding once again but this is the first time we have won a medal in target shooting and this success is a credit to Vella and his association."

Meanwhile, in skeet competition, young Clive Farrugia is also in contention for a podium finish as he ended the opening three rounds in third place.

The 17-year-old hit scores of 23, 22, 21 for a total of 66, five adrift of second-placed Antonis Andreou, of Cyprus. Pre-competition favourite Kyriacos Christoforou is leading the way with 72 points.

Paul Vella, the other Maltese shooter in skeet, is joint fifth on 62. He compiled scores of 19, 22 and 21. Iceland's Om Valdi-marrson is fourth on 63.

The qualifying phase of the eight-man skeet competition comes to a close this morning with another round of 25 clays before the top-six barrage final.

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