Malta U-17 wrapped up their waterpolo commitments at the inaugural European Games in Baku with a 13-8 (3-2, 3-2, 4-2, 3-2) upset to Ukraine in a positional play-off to finish 16th place in the men’s tournament, yesterday.

Karl Izzo’s players stayed in touch with Ukraine in the opening session as they trailed 3-2, with Jeremy Abela and Ben Plumpton netting the goals.

The match remained evenly balanced with Plumpton adding two more goals to leave Malta 6-4 behind when ends were changed.

However, Ukraine showed better cohesion in the third session when they made the most of Malta’s poor passing play to take a commanding 10-5 lead before Plumpton scored his second of the session to reduce the deficit to four goals.

Ukraine quickly dispelled any lingering hopes of a Malta comeback with two quick goals to surge 12-6 ahead. Darren Zammit hit a double but the eastern Europeans rounded up their victory with another goal to make sure they will avoid the bottom placing in the final rankings.

In the other 13-16 classification match yesterday, Turkey beat Azerbaijan 11-6.

Another Maltese athlete in action in Baku yesterday was Eleonor Bezzina. She competed in the 10 metres air pistol event.

Bezzina failed to challenge for a top-eight berth that would have earned her a place in the final as she totalled 365 points.

She was classified 32nd overall from 36 shooters.