Roderick Sciberras is the world U-19 subbuteo champion after winning a closely-fought final against favourite Carlos Flores of Spain on Saturday at the Cottonera Sports Complex, venue for the World Cup which attracted 136 players from 16 different countries.

Sciberras, of the Zabbar Subbuteo Club, reached the final after another tight contest in the semi-final. He beat Mickael Casciano, of Belgium, 3-2. In the final Sciberras required an extra time golden goal to claim the honour after a 2-1 win.

It could have been an all-Maltese final in the U-19 category. However, Jean Carl Tabone could not match the expertise and skill of Flores who won the semi-final 3-2.

There was more good news for the local subbuteo organisation yesterday evening when the U-19 formation of Sciberras, Tabone, Samuel Bartolo and Melanie Fenech teamed up well to win the youths' title, beating Belgium 2-1 in the final.

In the women's singles tournament, Fenech, figuring for the first time on the international scene, made it all the way to the last four in the singles event but was then ousted by Dane Kamilla Kristiansen 4-0.

On Saturday, Joseph Mifsud made it through the group stages of the Open tournament but suffered elimination in the last 32 stage.

The Malta champion then joined Joseph Borg Bonaci, Derek Conti and Massimo Cremona in the teams' tournament where the quartet were ousted in the semi-finals by Belgium 3-1.