James D'Alfonso dashed home in second place in yesterday's 400m final on the second day of the track and field event at the GSP stadium, venue of Monday's opening ceremony in Nicosia.
D'Alfonso's silver medal was the first for Team Malta in the 2009 GSSE but the country is still occupying a lowly position in the medals table.
The women's basketball team gold medal will be added to Malta's tally today when the tournament comes to a close with the final matches.
Australian sprinter D'Alfonso, who holds dual citizenship, surged home in 49.07 seconds for our second track and field medal following the bronze of Carol Walsh in the 10,000m earlier in the week.
Cyprus's Stefanos Hadjinikolaou captured gold in 48.46 seconds while San Marino's Ivano Bucci was third behind D'Alfonso in 49.29 seconds.
"I'm very happy to have won this medal for Malta in my first international competition," the 20-year-old told The Times last night.
"I felt very good today and after the heats, I knew I was in a good position to finish in the top three.
"I'm not totally satisfied with my time, however, but the most important thing today was to get a medal and I'm really proud to have done this for Malta," D'Alfonso said while clutching his precious prize.
In the women's event, Francesca Xuereb, whose build-up to the Games was disrupted by a foot injury, failed to defend the silver medal she won in Monaco two years ago when finishing fourth in the final. Her time was 1:01.93.
Cyprus veteran Antroula Shialou, 36, secured gold in 56.38 seconds. Iceland's Hafdis Sigurdardottir was second in 58.39 while Shialou's team-mate, Julia Christodoulou, took bronze in 59.09.
In the women's long jump, Alessandra Pace leapt 5.72 metres to finish fifth overall while Angie Mangion placed ninth with 5.22 metres. This event was won by Nektaria Panayi with a best jump of 6.05 metres. She finished ahead of Johanna Ingadottir (5.99) and Irene Charalmapous (5.97).
Andy Grech failed to beat the six-metre mark in the men's long jump after placing fifth with a best jump of 5.9m.
The title here went to Iceland's Kristinn Torfason with 7.60. Second place went to Mathaious Volou, of Cyprus, with a personal best of 7.51, ahead of team-mate Arnos Zacharias (7.32).
MOC unhappy with results
At the end of the track and field competitions, Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco expressed his disappointment at Team Malta's overall showing so far.
The build-up to this year's GSSE had been anything but plainsailing but the MOC head made it clear that a change in policy was needed to achieve better results in the future.
"This is not the best time to draw conclusions but it's clear that we need to revise our policies on the technical preparation of our athletes. Things must change, we cannot continue like this. The MOC should have total control over the athletes' preparations.
"We must address this issue as quickly as possible in order to move forward ahead of the 2011 GSSE in Liechtenstein," he said.
"In some sport we expected better results, for sure."