William Chetcuti was given a rousing welcome yesterday. Photo: Jason Borg

The 17th edition of the Mediterranean Games in Turkey, with the participation of over 4,000 athletes from 24 countries, including Malta, comes to a close today.

As expected, Italy dominated most of the events in Mersin, topping the medal count with 69 golds so far but hosts Turkey (46 gold medals) are doing exceptionally well to occupy the second place in the overall classification ahead of France (24), Spain (20) and Egypt (20).

The Games, the biggest sports event Turkey has ever hosted, are seen as a vital step towards Istanbul’s candidacy for the 2020 Olympic Games.

The hosts have good reason to celebrate as the organisation went smoothly despite widespread anti-government protests leading to the opening ceremony on June 20. Turkey will also finish the Games with a record number of medals won and some of their results were also impressive.

Ramil Guliyev established a national record in athletics as he set a new best time for the men’s 100m race, breaking the previous 10.37secs with his 10.23.

Guliyev took home the silver medal as his compatriots Tanui Ozbilen and Polat Kemboi Arıkan received gold medals for their impressive runs at the men’s 1,500m and 10,000m finals respectively.

Turkey athletes also left their mark in other sport they were not expected to impress including martial arts, boxing, weightlifting, wrestling, shooting and swimming.

Malta fielded ten athletes in six sport in Mersin.

Most of them, along with Maltese Olympic Committee president Julian Pace Bonello, returned home yesterday with the best result ever at the Mediterranean Games.

This came thanks to the gold medal won by William Chetcuti in Double Trap, the first for the country in this arena, and a silver medal in Raffa doubles through the exploits of David Farrugia and Stefan Farrugia at the boccodrome.

Stefan Farrugia could have added another medal yesterday but he lost a play-off for third place against home bowler Yunus Emre Gungor 12-4.

Earlier in the day, Farrugia played in the Raffa semi-finals but could do little to prevent San Marino’s Matteo Albani from reaching the title match as he went down 2-12.

Farrugia had booked a place in the last four on Friday, having qualified from his group as runner-up to Italy’s Pasquale D’Alterio, the eventual gold medallist.

For Chetcuti, the Double Trap success in Mersin meant a full set of Mediterranean Games medals following his third placing in Almeria in 2005 and the runner-up spot of Pescara in 2009.

He wore all three medals around his neck as he was given another rousing welcome by his close relatives and numerous friends from the Malta Shooting Sport Federation at the airport yesterday afternoon.

The others in Team Malta were Rebecca Camilleri (athletics), Adam Vella (wrestling), Brian Galea, Nathan Lee Xuereb and Eleanor Bezzina (shooting), Andrew Chetcuti (swim-ming) and Rodmar Pulis (weightlifting).

Swimmer Chetcuti did not rank among the podium winners last week but he continued to show signs of progress after securing a direct entry to the World Cham-pionships in Barcelona next month.

Chetcuti swam the 50m ’fly in a personal best time of 24.72 seconds, just inside the FINA ‘B’ qualifying benchmark.

Meanwhile, Camilleri had approached the Mediterranean Games with a certain amount of optimism having established a new record of 6.30m in the long jump just a few days before at the European Team Championships in Slovakia.

However, Mersin turned out to be a nightmare for the Pembroke girl as she suffered a freak leg injury during training which forced her to quit the event.

Camilleri will be out of competition for several weeks but expected to make a comeback when fully recovered.

The Maltese chef-de-mission in Mersin was Lucienne Attard.

Morocco soccer stars

Morocco claimed the gold medal in men’s soccer on Friday after a penalty shootout victory over Turkey in the final. The tournament was contested by Under-19 teams.

Hicham Khaloua put Morocco in front early in the game but Turkey fought back with two goals from Abdulkerim Bardakci and Ibrahim Coskun.

Morocco equalised with an Adam Ennaffati shot from the distance late on to force extra-time.

No other goals were scored and penalties were needed to determine a winner.

Morocco won the shootout 3-2 leaving Turkey to settle for the silver medal.

Medals table