James D'Alfonso handed Malta its first silver medal in the track and field events after placing second in the 400m final at the Small Nations Games today.
The UK-based sprinter dashed home second in 49.07.
Stefanos Hadjinkolaou, of Cyprus, won the race in 48.46.
Swimming Relay team set new national record
Earlier, the 4x100 metres medley relay team set a new national record after placing fourth in the final at the Limassol Pool. The quartet of Nicole Cremona, Talisa Pace, Melinda Sue Micallef and Davina Mangion completed the distance in four minutes 36.51 seconds to shave .35 seconds from the old mark set last April.
Iceland landed gold in a new Games record of 4:15.26 while Cyprus also went below the previous mark to take silver in 4:21.54 ahead of Luxembourg 4:23.29.
Pace and Micallef were also in action in the 50 metres free-style. In the morning session the young swimmers secured their place in the final after posting the seventh and eighth fastest times respectively. Pace clocked 28.16 while Micallef’s time was 28.42 seconds. However, in the afternoon final it was Micallef who outpaced her team-mate when placing seventh in 28.18 while Pace was eighth in 28.30.
Iceland’s Ragnheidur Ragnarsdottir set a new Games record on her way to land gold in 25.62. She finished just ahead of team-mate Ingibjorg Jonsdottir (26.69) and Cyprus swimmer Rania Pavlou (26.98).
Disappointment in table tennis and beach volley
Simon Gerada and Daniel Bajada failed to progress to the final stages of the doubles competition after winning just one of their three qualifying matches at the Evangelos Florakis Multipurpose Hall in Nicosia. Drawn in Group B, the Maltese were beaten by San Marino’s Wang and Vannucci 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-2, 11-9) and Bast and Michely of Luxembourg 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 12-10). They ended their commitments on a high when they had the better of Monaco duo Andre and Rott 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-7).
In the beach volley competition the Malta team, formed by Paul Vella and Daniel Gauci, lost the play-off for seventh and eighth place after a 2-0 defeat against Iceland. The Nordic duo won the first set 21-18 and then edged the second 24-22.