The Maltese team was among the 32 fielded by various federations across the continent for last week’s four-day European Champion-ships which were played in Egmond Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
The tournament was a memorable one for Team Malta as they finished with the best-ever placing for the national team at this level after a 10th position and a bronze medal for Norbert Attard in the singles event.
The four-man Maltese team was composed of Attard, Albert Scerri, Gordon Stanmore and Vincent Busuttil.
At the end of Day One, they topped their group on maximum points following wins over Luxembourg (9-6), Iceland (9-4) and Germany (9-4).
Malta lost (9-4) in the last-16 match when facing one of the pre-tournament favourite sides, Scotland. This, however, was the first time that the national team had qualified from the group stages at either the European Champion-ship or the World Cup.
Day Two was reserved for the singles tournament, Attard going on to claim the first ever medal for Malta at these championships with outstanding performances including a 4-3 win over 2015 world champion Scott Mitchell and then beating top-ranked WDF player Darius Labanauskas, of Lithuania, 4-1.
Attard lost to eventual gold medal winner Richard Veenstra, of The Netherlands, in the semi-finals.
In the last-32 stage, Veenstra had eliminated Scerri in a tight match that was decided in the last leg.
Busuttil and Stanmore suffered early exits in the competition as at the end of the day Malta had soared to fourth place in the overall standings.
Attard and Scerri were beaten 4-3 in the first round of the doubles tournament by Samouchos/ Krontiris, of Greece. Veenstra teamed up with Wesley Harms to give the Dutch hosts another title.
Stanmore and Busuttil exited the competition at the last-32 stage after a 4-0 upset to O’Connor/Flood, of Northern Ireland.
The Netherlands won the teams’ tournament ahead of England and Sweden as Malta finished the championships in 10th place.
Malta Darts Association PRO thanked the team for their fine collective effort.
“We would like to show our appreciation to the team for the fine results obtained in the European Championships,” he said.
“Their contribution to the game will not go unnoticed as we continue with the re-branding project we are currently undergoing at the association.”