Malta’s participation in the European Championships for Under-18 and Under-21 players came to an end yesterday as Chris Peplow, Brian Cini and Isaac Borg failed to make it through to the latter stages of the continental tournaments in Wroclaw, Poland.

In the U-21 tournament, Peplow had advanced to the Last 16 stage after finding little difficulty to have the better of Israeli player Amir Nardeia 4-1.

Next up for Peplow was a meeting with Andres Petrov, of Estonia, with a place in the quarter-finals at stake.

However, the Estonian player proved too strong for Peplow as he raced to a 4-1 victory, with a top break of 69 in the final frame.

For Petrov, this was his second successive victory against a Maltese opponent in the competition.

In the Last 32, Petrov had defeated second-seed Cini 4-2, compiling a best run of 56 in the fourth frame.

Earlier, Borg was knocked out of the U-18 competition.

The 15-year-old was beaten by Welsh player Dylan Emery 3-0 in a best-of-five match in the Last 32 stage.