Malta 9
Austria 8

(2-2, 3-1, 4-2, 0-3)

The Malta junior team emulated their senior counterparts yesterday after beating Austria 9-8 in a tight final to win the Juniors 98 EU 8 Nations Tournament in Brno, the Czech Republic.

Last month, Malta’s senior team claimed the title in a similar tournament, edging Denmark 9-8 in the final, played in Limerick, Ireland.

Yesterday, the juniors brought further success for Maltese waterpolo after seeing off the stern challenge of Austria, just over a week after the seniors captured a silver medal in the Commonwealth Championship.

The Maltese boys had encountered little trouble on their way to the final after winning their previous four games comprehensively but they had to dig deep into their reserves of energy and fighting spirit to edge past Austria.

After drawing the first session 2-2, Malta laid the platform for their win in the second and third quarters which they won 3-1 and 4-2 to surge 9-5 ahead.

Austria refused to give up though, hitting three goals in the final session to pull within one goal of Malta but the team led by head coach Karl Izzo held firm to preserve their slim lead.

San Ġiljan’s Ben Plumpton, the tournament’s top scorer and best player, again played a prominent role in Malta’s victory after scoring five goals.

Darren Zammit, also of San Ġiljan, helped himself to three in the final and Kyle Navarro, of Neptunes, got the other goal for Malta.

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