Team Malta ended their commitments in the Luxembourg GSSE with a modest medals’ tally of two gold, 10 silver and 14 bronze medals to finish seventh in the overall classification with only Andorra and San Marino behind them.
The team’s selection failed to win a gold medal on the final day, with Maltese athletes involved in track and field events, basketball and beach volley.
Malta won a silver and five bronze medals on the final day of the track and field events at the Josy Barthel Stadium today.
Rebecca Sare won a silver medal in the triple jump after she managed a leap of 12.08m while Andy Grech set a new national record on his way to take bronze in the men’s event.
Giselle Camilleri earned her second bronze medal of the Games after placing second in the women’s 5,000 final.
The men’s 4x100 relay team of Rachid Chouhal, Andy Grech, Steve Camilleri and Luke Bezzina had to settle for bronze. Iceland who had originally finished second were disqualified, lifting Malta to second place. However, the Nordics lodged a protest against the result which was upheld by the organisers thus demoting Malta back in third place.
In the men’s 4X400 relay, Steve Camilleri, Matthew Croker, Neil Brimmer and Kevin Moore placed third while there was another bronze placing for the women’s quartet of Francesca Borg, Nicole Gatt, Janet Richard and Lara Scerri.
In women’s basketball, Malta were beaten by Cyprus 59-48 to finish bottom of the four-team tournament with no points.
Angela Adamoli’s girls, who were looking to successfully defend the gold medal won in Cyprus four years ago, were well below their best and completed their commitments with a disappointing performance that left the Maltese clan perplexed by the team’s poor showing.
In beach volley, Alison Borg and Gertrude Zarb threw away a first-set lead to suffer a 2-1 defeat to Liechtenstein in the bronze medal play-off.
It was the second successive edition that the Maltese girls had lost the bronze medal play-off in GSSE after going down to Luxembourg in Liechtenstein two years ago.