Modest showing in Trap pairs

There was little to shout about yesterday following the participation of Malta’s shooters in Trap pairs as both teams in the men’s and women’s competitions were way off medal contention.

Rebecca Madyson and Kate Cassar failed to challenge for a place among the top three and finished eighth while Jason J. Aquilina and Nazzareno Attard could only managed 12th place.

Madyson, a Melbourne 2006 medallist, hit similar scores of 22 in her two rounds to finish on 44 but Cassar only contributed with a combined 35 that left the team on 79, just one ahead of bottom-placed Wales.

The gold medal went to Laetisha Scanlan and Stacy Roial. The Australians reeled off a Games record of 93 to finish ahead of England, 91, and Canada, 90.

Today, Madyson and Cassar will be looking to produce a better ­showing in singles where Madyson defends the silver medal she won four years ago in Australia.

Aquilina and Attard finished with a combined score of 180 after identical scores of 90. Aquilina hit 23, 21, 22 and 24 and Attard’s scores were 21, 23, 24 and 22.

The men’s Trap teams title went to Adam Vella, of Maltese descent, and Michael Diamond, who hit a perfect 100. The Australia representatives totalled 198 points to pip hosts India to the gold medal by a single point.

Today, Aquilina and Attard compete in the preliminary round of the singles competition which will be completed tomorrow.

In lawn bowls, the Malta triples team suffered two other defeats, going down to South Africa 2-0 (5-12, 5-14) and Brunei 1.5-0.5 (8-8, 6-8). Today they complete their qualifiers when they play Niue Island.

In pairs, Brendan Aquilina and Francis saw their hopes of progressing receiving a blow after they lost to Wales 2-0 (3-15, 6-9) and then went down to Jersey 6-0 on tie break after the match ended 1-1 (7-12, 8-7).

Today they play against India and England.

The singles event starts today and Malta will be represented by Shaun Parnis and Carmela Spiteri.

Parnis will be up against New Zealand’s Ali Forsyth and Spiteri plays twice, against Jersey’s Rachel Macdonald and Helen Grundling, of South Africa.

In squash, Brad Hindle Deguara and Michael Fiteni open their doubles campaign today and in track and field Rebecca Camilleri will be involved in the long jump qualification.