Three semi-final slots for Maltese in Rotterdam

Maltese players in the World Cup 2009, played in Rotterdam earlier this month, returned home with a bronze medal after reaching three semi-finals in three different categories.

At the Sportcentrum West venue, Mark Gauci, Melaine Fenech and the U-15 team went close to play in the final at the FISTF World Cup, the 17th in the series but, ultimately, had to settle for a place on the podium.

Malta champion Gauci qualified from his group as runner-up to Gil Delogne, of Belgium. Unfortunately for the Maltese team, in the knock-out stage Gauci was pitted against Massimo Cremona and Hansel Mallia with Derek Conti.

Gauci and Mallia made it to the next round along with Charlie Aquilina who also qualified to the last 16 after beating Belgium's Bessim Golger 2-0.

Aquilina, whose registration was only accepted 48 hours before the competition, lost to Valery Dejardin (Belgium) but Gauci and Mallia reached the quarter-finals after eliminating Alberto Mateos (Spain) and Saverio Bari (Italy) respectively.

Mallia was beaten 2-0 by Italian favourite Daniele Bertelli as Gauci reached the last four thanks to a fine showing against Eric Verhagen (Holland).

Gauci shocked Bertelli in the semi-final after taking an early lead but the lofty Italian hit back strongly to beat the Maltese player 2-1.

Bertelli went on to clinch the honours after beating Dejardin 4-2 in the final. It was the second successive World Cup title for Bertelli.

Fenech was back to the scene following an absence of more than two years. In Rotterdam, she eliminated Mensel (Germany) and La Cascio (Italy) on her way to the semi-finals of the women's tournament.

Fenech's march was halted by French girl Françoise Guyot who was beaten 7-2 in the final by Belgium's Delphine Dieudonne.

In veterans, Joseph Mifsud, only made it to the last 16 stage. In the U-19 category Adam Gatt was also eliminated at the last 16 as Angelo Borg got knocked out in the quarter-finals.

Team events

In the Open competition for teams, Cremona, Mifsud, Gauci and Conti had a convincing round in the group after chalking up comfortable wins at the expense of Finland, Greece and Germany.

However, that effort was still not enough as Belgium made it to the semi-finals on a better score difference after a one-all draw.

In the final, Italy beat Austria 3-0.

In the U-15 event, Darren Bezzina, Darren Carabott and Angelo Borg worked their way up to the last four following similar 2-1 wins over Greece and England and a 2-2 draw with Holland.

In the semi-finals, however, the Maltese got beaten (3-0) by eventual winners Italy.

In veterans, Steve Austin, Joe Zammit Pavia and Anthony Sapiano were no match for Italy (tournament winners), France, Holland and Belgium in a very difficult group.

Meanwhile, during an annual FISTF general meeting in Rotterdam, Silvio Catania was elected general secretary of the sport's international body.

He will occupy this position until September 2010.