Team Malta secured two of the opening three sporting contests on the second day of the 2011 Mediterranean Friendship Games yesterday but their hopes of topping the overall classification suffered a setback in the afternoon after the pool selection lost heavily to Sicily.
Badminton’s Stefan Salomone, Samuel Cali, Fiorella Farrugia and Maria Borg joined forces to overcome Sicily’s Mirella Militello, Annalisa Calandra, Filippo Speciali and Giuseppe Lipari 3-2 in a thrilling match at the Arcadina Gym.
Militello and Calandra beat Farrugia and Borg in the doubles 21-13, 21-18 but Salomone and Cali restored equilibrium in the men’s match against Speciali and Lipari 21-15, 21-18.
Borg put Malta ahead when she toppled Militello 24-22, 21-14 in the opening singles. Salomone had the chance to wrap up the tie as he led Speciali 1-0 after winning the opening set 21-8. However, the Sicilian hit back to win the next two sets 21-19, 21-9 and force a decider.
Cali and Farrugia faced Lipari and Calandra in mixed doubles and, despite losing the opening set 21-17, they kept their cool to turn the match in their favour with identical 21-16 wins in the next two sets.
Malta’s table football players were made to work hard to live up to their high billing yesterday following a close 2-1 win over Sicily.
Charlie Aquilina edged Ivano Russo 2-1 and Joseph Borg Bonaci brushed aside Enrico Testa 5-0 but Derek Conti was held by Emilio Richichi 1-1 and Stefan Pace lost 2-0 to Filippo Morabito.
Earlier, the table football selection eased past Syracuse 4-0 in a non-competitive match.
In table tennis, Daniel Bajada and Andrew Gambina suffered a 3-1 loss to Sicily’s Daniele Sabatino and Giovanni Capri.
The afternoon session brought disappointment for Malta as the men’s pool team –Miguel Falzon, Antoine Aquilina, Christopher Tabone and Chris Mills – suffered a heavy 9-1 defeat to Sicily at the Pool Hall.
In equestrian, Malta placed third in the three-team competition after Gina Curmi, Sarah Micallef, Tommy Xuereb and Laurence Ciarlo finished with a combined score of eight penalty points.
Sicily placed first with no penalty points ahead of the Syracuse selection who had four penalty points.
Farrugia Sacco satisfied
Meanwhile, MOC president Lino Farrugia Sacco said he was satisfied with the effort of Team Malta ahead of today’s final day of competition.
“If you look at the overall results, there were a lot of positives and some negatives but I’m satisfied,” he said.
“Obviously the best performance came in table football where the team showed commitment and application while badminton provided another positive surprise as our players managed to turn defeat into victory against tricky opponents.
“The biggest setback was in pool where, traditionally, we are stronger than Sicily but this time we were well beaten.”
As regards the future of the Friendship Games, Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco said the MOC opposes plans by CONI Sicilia to expand the Games, citing financial limitations.
“We have had talks with CONI Sicilia over the way forward for these Games and we have rejected the idea to expand the Games with the possible inclusion of Tunisia and Libya.
“Talks will continue in the coming months but we can’t accept a commitment which is beyond our means.”