William Chetcuti had to be content with sixth place in yes-terday’s European Championship Double Trap shoot which took place in Belgrade, Serbia.
Chetcuti did well to reach the finals after winning a three-way shoot-off with Germany’s An-dreas Loew and Francesco D’Aniello (Italy) after all three had143 points after three rounds of competition.
Chetcuti, who hit scores of 47, 49 and 47, booked his place in the barrage on the 10th clay after a miss by D’Aniello. Loew had dropped out of contention on the seventh shot.
In the final, Chetcuti was unable to improve his position after another round of 47 to finish one clay behind Swede Hakan D’Ahlby and Briton Peter Wilson who had 191 points each.
The gold medal went to Russian Vasili Mosin who targeted 194 points overall (146+48).
The runner-up spot was also decided by a shoot-off and the silver medal eventually went to Briton Richard Faulds (145+48 =193). He had the better of Italian Daniele di Spigno (147+46) after 12 rounds in the decider.
Yesterday, there were 22 starters for the Double Trap competition at the Kovilovo Sport Centre which also hosted another Double Trap event for juniors.
Here, Maltese hopeful Nathan Lee Xuereb also made it through to the barrage after a total of 132/150 to obtain the last slot in the finals. In the barrage, he managed a score of 38 to finish sixth.
The title went to Slovak Filip Praj on 192 points.
Meanwhile, target shooter Law-rence Darmanin made his debut in the European Championships in the 50m Rifle Prone.
Darmanin finished outside the medal zone with a total of 565 from a possible 600.
On Thursday, Clive Farrugia will represent the country in the skeet competition in Belgrade where the 2011 ISSF World Championships will be held next month.