A team of four of Malta’s top tenpin bowlers will be in Gibraltar this week to compete in the 17th Mediterranean Championships, starting Tuesday.

Team Malta comprise two male and two female players – Justin Caruana Scicluna, Neil Sullivan, Sue Abela and Joanna Attard.

They earned the right to represent the country in the prestigious championships after qualifying through a competition played re-cently at the Eden SuperBowl.

Caruana Scicluna placed himself at the top of the heap when it really mattered, with a total of 4,908 from his 24 games.

Sullivan finished on 4,742 ahead of Mark Spiteri who missed out by a mere 23 pins.

Perennial MCC qualifier Abela found herself in an unusual position after day one’s eight games when she fell to third place behind Attard and Melissa Swift.

But top athletes never wilt under the pressure and true to that Abela hit back strongly to win the qualifying event with a score of 4,541.

Attard was second (4,351) while Swift had to settle for third (4,205).

The Mediterranean Champion-ships will be played at the 12-lane centre inside the King’s Bastions Leisure Centre.

There will be four separate events – singles, doubles, mixed doubles and the teams competition.

Malta continues to perform to extraordinary levels in the championships and, in fact, sits proudly at the top of the medals table after 16 editions with no fewer than 33 gold medals, ahead of much larger nations like Greece (30), Italy (16), Israel, France and Spain.

Also making the trip to Gibraltar will be national coach Rick Vogelesang as well as Malta Tenpin Bowling Association president Paul Baldacchino.