Maltese track and field athletes took centre stage in the fourth day of competition at the FISEC Games after they won six medals at the Matthew Micallef St John Ground at Marsa yesterday.
The performance of the day belongs to Michael Fraser, the English-born sprinter who gained dual citizenship a few months ago and who was making his second showing for Malta in an international event here.
The 17-year-old, who last week obtained his personal best in his favourite 400m in Gateshead, when clocking 49.53 seconds, was at the starting blocks of the 200m final and ran away with the opposition to dash home first in 22.22 seconds and hand Malta its first gold medal from the track.
Fraser then teamed up with Mark Anthony Farrugia, Darren Buttigieg and Steve Camilleri in the 4x400m and again showed his class to push the team to second place overall.
Martina Xuereb then handed Malta its second gold medal of the day when she burst home first in the 200 metres final in a time of 25.37 seconds.
Francesca Xuereb was also among the medal winners yesterday when she placed second in the 800 metres when posting a time of 2:16.56 minutes.
Young Tamara Vella was another medallist for Malta yesterday when she placed third in the long jump event with a leap of 5.42 metres while Marija Sciberras took bronze in the 300m hurdles.
Meanwhile, today the Malta contingent can add two more gold medals to their tally after the teams of football and futsal progressed to the final of their respective competitions.
At the Centenary Stadium, Oliver Spiteri's team were through to the final of the football tournament after they beat Flanders 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out.
At the end of normal time the match was locked at 1-1 with Jean Paul Farrugia scoring Malta's goal. A shoot-out was required to declare a winner with Christian Briffa, Matthew Agius, Clifford Vella and Steve Pisani scoring from the spot to put Malta through.
In today's final, Malta will face England with kick-off scheduled at 12.15 p.m.
There was similar success in the futsal competition where the Maltese team moved one win away from landing the gold medal after beating Spain 6-2 at the De La Salle College yesterday.
Michael Grima chalked up a brace with the other goals coming from Rowen Muscat, Edward Grima, Randall Refalo and Tristan Caruana.
Today, Raymond Schembri's boys face Hungary and if they win they will be declared winners of the competition.
In the basketball competition for boys, the Maltese are through to the final after yesterday they beat France 74-60. Sam Deguara was again in inspirational form for the Maltese potting 26 points.
The Malta team today will face Italy in the final which starts at 4.30 p.m. at the Ta' Qali Pavilion.
In the handball competition for boys, Malta drew with Hungary 23-23 at the University Sports Complex while in volleyball the Maltese girls lost to Flanders 3-1.
Meanwhile, the FISEC Games come to a close this evening with the closing ceremony at Amazonia in Buġibba at 8 p.m.