In the few months Eleanor Bezzina has been training in air-pistol shooting, she has managed to climb to the top in this sport, practised mainly at the Bidnija ranges.

In last weekend's competition at the Larry Vella Hall, she won the day's honours with personal best scores of 361/400 in qualification and 95.2 in the final.

She left her rivals, Josette Calleja and newcomer Shirley Templeman, fighting it out for the runners-up spot.

Templeman completed the qualification round ahead of Calleja 445-431, but Calleja looked more composed in the final, hitting a creditable score of 81.3 points against Templeman's 67.1.

The final scoresheet read: Bezzina 457.2, Calleja 367.3 and Templeman 359.1.

In the men's air-pistol event, Ray Cacciattolo had a score of 545/600 and 92.4 (637.4) to secure victory ahead of Martin Grech (497+89.4) 586.4. John Vincenti, another newcomer, was third with a score of (337+82.0) 419.0 points.

In air-rifle, William Vella obtained a qualification score of 567 points but had to retire from the final as he felt unwell. Michael Xuereb won the competition with a combined score of (485+86.3) 571.3 points.

In Open air-rifle, Clifton Bugeja crowned his debut with a remarkable score of (535+100.6) 635.6 points.

Gino Galea was the competitions referee. He was assisted by Patrick Azzopardi and John Galea.