Marcon Bezzina, Jeremy Saywell and Isaac Bezzina, under the charge of Lamberto Raffi, have just taken part at the Vittorio Veneto international judo tournament in Italy, contested by 160 teams and around 400 judokas.
Last year, Saywell returned home with a bronze medal from this same tournament but this time he was adamant to go for something better and, in fact, he did achieve his ambition.
The U-66kgs junior category was contested by 42 judokas. Saywell received a first-round bye before being paired with Italians Riccardo Sireus and Thomas Deponte in his first two bouts. He won on both occasions showing great confidence before beating Eric Mason in the quarter-finals with a Yuko.
The semi-final bout was against Alessandro Bergamo.
Saywell relied mostly on his main weapon, the ura-nage before throwing Bergamo for Ippon, thus qualifying for the final where he met Gabriel DeLuca.
A few seconds into the fight, Saywell had already pinned De Luca twice.
De Luca got penalised with a Shido, since he was passive in the bout, as Saywell kept in control to finish with a Wazari (100 points) and a hold down to clinch the gold medal he was craving for.
Bezzina, unfortunately, was not 100 per cent fit and the draw did not make it any easier for her either as she was one of six judokas who did not benefit from a bye.
Nevertheless, she started off by eliminating Michaela Petterle but then got ousted by Sharon Di Nasta who qualified for the quarter-finals and eventually placed second.
In the repechage, Bezzina lost to Valentina Giorgis who continued to advance and finished third in the tournament.
Isaac Bezzina contested the U-90 category for juniors.
His first bout was against Carlo Boschetti who won with majority of points.
Bezzina still made the repechage and threw his first opponent, Francesco Volanti, with Uchi Mata.
In the contest for bronze medal, Bezzina was leading with a yuko against Soverini Lorenzo. However, the latter breached Bezzina’s defence and threw him for Ippon. Bezzina placed fifth in his category.
Despite fielding only three judokas in the tournament, Malta was classified a creditable 26th in the final list for teams.