The women’s national team returned home with a gold medal following their participation at the European Team Championships – Division Three played recently in Jersey.

The selection, composed of Colette Sultana, Kimberley Galea and Johanna Rizzo, competed against Croatia, Gibraltar, Latvia, Luxembourg, Russia and hosts Jersey in a round-robin format with each encounter consisting of three matches between the top three from each team.

The Russians provided the toughest of challenges for the Maltese in what proved to be the most important tie of the tournament.

Rizzo did well to beat Olga Petrukhina 17-15, 11-5, 11-5.

In the tie between the no.1 seeds, former world no.70 Irina Beliaeva took a two-game lead, 11-8, 11-6 and looked set to beat Sultana. However, the 21-year-old hit back to win the next two games 11-9, 11-7.

Sultana then completed the comeback after winning the deciding game 11-7 and put the encounter beyond Russia’s reach even though Galea, 16, lost her match to Anastasia Gross.

Victory over Russia proved to be crucial in the end as the Maltese won all their other matches 3-0 to secure top spot.

Malta and Russia will now be promoted to Division Two next year.

In Jersey, Malta was also represented by the men’s team – Daniel Zammit Lewis, Merik Toms, Sebastien Giordano, Kijan Sultana and Robert Sultana.

In the qualifying stage they finished second behind Poland and ahead of the Isle Of Man. They tied their direct encounters against Croatia and Estonia, 2-2, but were unlucky to lose by game and points difference to the same opponents.

In a play-off for seventh place, the Maltese were then beaten by Gibraltar.

The two squads were under the supervision of national coach Bradley Hindle and team manager Ivan Balzan.

“All players gave their utmost and performed well, including 13-year-old Kijan Sultana who was the youngest player in the tournament,” Malta Squash said.

“This augurs well for the future as more juniors will be making their way to the senior team over the next years.”