Carol Walsh provided the only source of inspiration from track and field yesterday after finishing third in the 10,000m final to cap a day of different fortunes for Team Malta in the 2009 Games of the Small States of Europe.
Walsh's bronze medal, her 12th overall in this arena, came after William Chetcuti's superb gold in shooting and four other bronze medals, one of which belonging to Marcon Bezzina who relinquished her 63kgs title in judo.
At the end of the day, all eyes were on 45-year-old Walsh who recovered in time for these Games after battling with injury for several weeks.
Making a record ninth appearance in the GSSE, Walsh held kept up with the pace of front-runners Pascale Schmoetten, of Luxembourg, and Iceland's Frida Run Thordardottir for most of the 25-lap race before settling for third place in 37:39.13.
Schmoetten took gold in 37:09.65 ahead of Thordardottir, 37.20.76.
Giselle Camilleri, Malta's other participant in the race, was fourth in 38:08.47.
Walsh could not hide her delight at the end of the race.
"It's a case of mission accomplished for me," Walsh said.
"I came to the Games with the main objective of completing a dozen of GSSE medals and I'm happy to have reached my goal. The race was not easy and turned out to be a tactical battle. It was hard to keep the pace with the other two runners but in the end I succeeded.
"I would have preferred to have clocked a faster time but when taking into consideration the injury problems I had to deal with this year and the limited time of preparation, a bronze medal is a great result."
Walsh is by far the most experienced athlete in Team Malta. Asked whether she has plans to race in another GSSE her response was quite clear.
"If in two years' time I still have the legs to be competitive then why not," Walsh commented.
In the men's 100m final, Nicolai Portelli just missed out on a bronze medal by a mere 0.05 of a second after placing fourth in 10.79 seconds, just behind third-placed Yoan Bebon (10.75), of Luxembourg.
Cyprus's Ioannou Panagiotis sprinted to gold in 10.38 while his fellow countrymen Filipos Spastris took silver in 10.61.
In the women's final, Diane Borg and Lara Scerri finished fifth and seventh respectively. Borg, who has just recovered from a long-term foot injury, clocked 12.41 while Scerri's time was 12.51.
Mark Herrera placed seventh in the 800m final when crossing the finishing line in 1:56.55 as James D'Alfonso booked his place in the 400m final after placing second in his heat in 49.28 seconds.
The athletics programme resumes tomorrow at the GSP Complex in Nicosia.