Poor results and no wind

The opening day of competition in Cyprus produced barren results in table tennis and beach volley with damaging defeats in both sport that halted the teams from reaching the final stages after the qualifying phase.

Elsewhere, sailors in Laser and Optimist categories endured a frustrating day as the lack of winds forced the cancellation of the opening races in Limassol.

Today, organisers will be keeping their fingers crossed that the weather conditions improve to get the sailing competitions going.

In table tennis, Simon Gerada and Daniel Bajada failed to make progress in the team competition after finishing third in Group B behind San Marino and Iceland.

The Maltese pair opened their campaign with two successive defeats, 1-3 and 0-3 to Iceland and San Marino respectively to all but end Malta's chances of qualification.

Gerada and Bajada did well in the evening match against Monaco to win 3-0 but by then the chances of a semi-final berth were already lost.

In beach volley, Paul Vella and Daniel Gauci suffered identical 2-0 defeats to San Marino and Cyprus that dashed all their hopes of qualifying to the knock-out phase.

Vella and Gauci wrap up their group commitments today when they play Luxembourg.