Positive results for Maltese in golf and badminton

There was an auspicious start to the Maltese athletes in this year’s Mediterranean Friendship Games, the fourth in the series, when the locals registered positive results in badminton and golf on Day One of the competition.

Badminton’s Malta A beat CONI Sicilia 5-0 and at Marsa, the Maltese golfers had the better of their opponents in the opening two matches.

With three golfers representing each country, the format was decided on one individual and one four ball better ball matchplay (scratch) games on each of the two days of the tournament.

Andy Borg won his individual match 2 up on Alessandro Leondari and Peter Satariano and J.J. Micallef won their match 5 and 3 over Luigi Cardio and Pio Ranieri.

Thus the Maltese require only one halved match today to clinch the honours.

With the match all square until the 10th hole, Borg birdied the 11th to go one up, then Leondari birdied the 12th to square the match.

Borg birdied the 13th to go one up again, only for the Sicilian to birdie the 16th and level the match with two holes to play.

Both players’ drives on the 17th were well hit, with Leondari having to chip his second shot over the greenside bunker while Borg having to play out of the same bunker. Borg stiffed his shot to a couple of feet from the pin to go one up after Leondari missed the putt.

The Sicilian then conceded the last hole for a Maltese victory.

In the other match, the Maltese golfers dovetailed extremely well and never lost sight of their goal.

With Satariano and Micallef making winning putts they managed to secure a four up lead after six holes only to see it dissipate to 2 up after successive bad drives on the 7th and 8th holes.

A birdie on the 10th with another on the 12th settled the game for Malta going 5 up after 12 holes.

Despite losing the 13th, the Maltese then closed the match on the 15th after Sicily failed to find the green on this short par three hole.

At the Immaculate Conception School, in Tarxien, the Maltese badminton team had to work hard to beat Sicily despite the final scoreline, perhaps, indicating that the hosts had a field day.

All rubbers were balanced and the closest Sicily came to winning a point was through the young Filippo Speciale who was beaten by Stefan Salomone 2-1 after a tight match that required three sets (24-22, 22-24, 25-23).

There was a partial setback at the Mtarfa gym yesterday as the Maltese fencers were unable to finish on the highest two places on the podium at the end of an informal individual Epee competition with the participation of nine men.

The gold and silver medals went to Sicily’s Emilio Lucenti and Giuseppe Renda with Pierre Bianchi and Andre Zahra settling for joint third.

The official fencing event, for teams, is scheduled for this afternoon. The Maltese will be pinning their hopes on Bianchi and Zahra who will be joined by Kurt Mifsud.

Malta B will be composed of Marcus Muscat Baron, Paul Borg and Kurt Storace.

Equestrian events were also held yesterday at Magħtab and late in the evening the chess and pool teams were engaged in their competitions at the Oracle Hall and De La Salle College, respectively.

Today’s Mediterranean Friendship Games programme also includes beach volley (Golden Bay), canoeing (Ta’ Xbiex) and karate (St Aloysius College).

The main attraction, however, should be the triathlon race on shorter distances at the Salina Coast Road, starting at 2 p.m.