Maltese wrestler David Galea (right) lands on his head after a throw by Pakistani opponent Qamar Abbas, yesterday. Photo: Paul Zammit Cutajar

Team Malta had a second tilt at a bronze medal at this year’s Commonwealth Games after wrestler David Galea qualified for the third place play-off in the 74kg category, in Glasgow, yesterday.

But, as happened at the shooting range with young Nathan Lee Xuereb on Sunday, it was not to be with Galea beaten to the podium by Mike Grundy, of England, at the SECC Centre.

The 25-year-old Galea had an encouraging start when he had the better of Kiribati’s Iabin Tokia 5-0.

He was beaten in his next fight by eventual finalist Qamar Abbas, of Pakistan, 4-0, but Galea’s competition was not over as he was included in a repechage contest against Katea Tebitara, from Solomon Islands.

At stake was a decider for bronze and the Maltese wrestler stood his ground with a 3-0 decision in his favour.

Grundy proved a tough opponent though as the Englishman was determined to make up for his upset in the semi-finals.

An injury did not help Galea either as he went down 10-0. The Maltese wrestler was classified fifth overall.

Grundy, whose sister Sarah will also fight for England today, had dominated his first bout and then edged past Gerald Meyer, of South Africa, but could not overcome Abbas who came from behind to win via pindown.

India’s Sushil Kumar, the 2010 Commonwealths champion at 66kgs, won the 74kg gold medal after beating Abbas in the final.

The Maltese Olympic Committee also had hopes of seeing shooter Brian Galea reaching the finals in the men’s trap competition, yesterday.

However, at the Barry Buddon range, Galea failed to reach his objective as he lacked the same kind of form from the previous day to slip to 11th place in the general standings.

Galea started the day joint sixth on the 46-point mark after the first two rounds of the competition on Monday.

His best yesterday was a 22 but in the other two rounds he missed on nine clays to finish on an overall 109 points (24-22-22-20-21).

The semi-finals line-up was headed by Australia’s Michael Diamond (121 points). He was followed by Aaron Heading (England) 119, Mansher Sing (India) 117, Manavjit Sandhu (India) 117, Yiannis Ailiotis (Cyprus) 115 and Adam Vella (Australia) 114.

In the end, it was Vella, of Maltese descent, who claimed the title after hitting 11/15 against Heading who only managed nine in the gold medal match. The bronze medal went to Sandhu while Diamond had to settle for fourth place.

Meanwhile, lawn bowls player Leonard Callus’s hopes of a place in the knock-out stages in the men’s singles took a further blow yesterday.

Callus, who lost his opening match on Monday, started with a 21-14 win over John Christian (Norfolk Islands) but later lost to Shannon McIlroy 21-2. The New Zealander is still unbeaten in the group after four matches.

Callus has a tough programme today as he completes his round-robin tournament with three other matches.

Malta also competed in women’s gymnastics artistic, yesterday.

The team’s combined score was a modest 92.630, way off the major contenders in the 14-nation event won by England who amassed a total of 167.555. Australia were second (161.646) and Wales (160.095) claimed bronze.

Squash results
Men’s doubles: Malta vs England 0-2; Malta vs Papua New Guinea 2-0.
Mixed doubles: Malta vs Wales 0-2.
Women’s doubles: Malta vs Australia 0-2.

Medals table