Gery Verbruggen of Belgium and Denmark's Kamilla Kjeldsen captured the titles in 12th Malta Open, as the event came to a typically thrilling conclusion at the Eden SuperBowl in St Julian's yesterday.

The record near-300 strong field was finally whittled down to the top four in each category after five days of fierce competition on the lanes.

The men's final was an all-Belgian affair with Verbruggen and Chris Van Damme facing off. The left-hander Verbruggen defeated his right-hander opponent, 247-208. Van Damme put together two big scores against defending champion Martin Larsen (234-202) and no. 2 seed Martin Blixt, both of Sweden, (268-235), to advance to the championship match.

Verbruggen consolidates his position as Europe's number one seed in the ranking system.

Malta's best bowlers in the men's section were Brian Farrugia and Mark Bugeja who finished 35th and 36th respectively. Bugeja had the honour of smashing the record for the highest six-game set ever in the 12-year history of the event in the qualifying round, where he played a 1458 total (243 average).

Abela, Anastasi place sixth and eighth Dane Kjeldsen, who finished third last year, defeated Germany's Michaela Göbel in the women's title match.

Göbel ousted Britt Bröndsted of Denmark in the opening match, 219-210, and then French Isabelle Saldjian, 232-166, for the right to challenge Kjeldsen for the title.

Thanks to her success in the Malta Open, Kjeldsen topples Saldjian to take the top spot in the European ranking table.

Sisters Sue Abela and Melissa Anastasi played extremely well throughout, with Abela finishing in sixth place, and Anastasi in eighth.