Maltese judokas added another two bronze medals to their tally in Cyprus yesterday but that did little to dampen the setback of forfeiting another judo title at the Lefkotheon Indoor Hall.
Double trap shooter William Chetcuti has won the only gold medal for the country after two days of competition.
There were no second placings so far as Malta's haul includes only another nine bronze medals for 10 overall. That leaves us lagging behind in bottom place in the eight-nation classification as hosts Cyprus are flying high at the top with 60 medals so far, 21 of which gold.
With three days of competition still to go, the ambitious hopes of finishing fourth could fast become a distant reality.
One of the country's brightest prospects yesterday was Joanna Camilleri. She was looking to defend the gold medal she won in judo's -57kg class in Monaco two years ago and looked well on course when she won her opening bout against Andorra's Babi Choopojcharoen.
However, successive defeats to Marilena Demosthenous, of Cyprus, and Marie Muller, of Luxembourg, relegated her to the lower place on the podium.
Muller took gold and Demosthenous silver.
In the men's 66kg, Kris Law matched the result of his twin brother Brent of two years ago when he won bronze.
He fought valiantly and scored impressive victories over Sotiris Charalambous, of Cyprus, and Axel Kristinsson, of Iceland.
However, he was then beaten by gold medallist Yan Siccardi, of Monaco, and second-placed Yves Monn, of Liechtenstein.
In the -73kg category, James Falzon did his best against heavier opponents but that was still not good enough for him to contest a medal.
The other judoka in action yesterday was newcomer Tiziana Apap in the -48kg category.
This youngster lost both her bouts in an event contested by only three judokas. No bronze medal was awarded.
National coach Alfredo Monti admitted he expected more from his judokas.
"Two bronze medals is OK even though I was convinced we could have done better," the Italian said.
"Luck was not on our side perhaps. Joanna was very aggressive but she committed two bad tactical decisions that put her out of contention."
There will be no judo competitions today. The teams' event is scheduled for tomorrow.