Sue Abela maintained her excellent record at the Mediterranean Championships yesterday after winning the silver medal in the ladies' singles event at the Cosmic Bowling Centre in Paphos, Cyprus.

Malta's team in Cyprus is made up of Abela, Tiziana Carannante, Justin Caruana Scicluna and Dennis Mercieca. These four bowlers all of whom earned their place in this year's selection for the XIII Mediterranean Championships by topping the classifications in a qualifying tournament held recently at the Eden SuperBowl.

The very first event of the championships yesterday produced Malta's first award with 'Queen of the Mediterranean' Abela picking up a silver in the ladies' competition.

The top Maltese bowler showed consistency during her six-game series in which she registered 218 pins, with a low game of 182.

Abela finished with a 1,213 total (202.2 average), second only to the young Israeli bowler, Liat Vizenfeld, who took gold with a tally of 1,289 (214.8 average).

Carannante, Malta's intermediate champion, placed 15th among a field of 20 female bowlers after bowling a total score of 1,077 pins (179.5 average).

The men's singles, ladies/men's doubles and a four-man team event are also in the programme of this year's three-day Med. Championships which will culminate in the Masters finals, to be contested between the top eight bowlers from each category.

After 12 editions, Malta leads the all-time medal list with a total of 26 gold, ahead of Greece on 23.

The championships were last held in Malta in 2005 to mark the 30th anniversary of the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association.