Sue Abela won the gold medal in the ladies' singles at the XII Mediterranean Championships in Montpellier yesterday.

Abela, one of four Maltese bowlers competing in France, got off to a poor start in her six-game set, rolling sub-standard 165 and 178 games. But the experienced Abela raised her game in the second part of the competition, reeling off a massive 268 and other excellent scores of 198, 202 and 198 to secure top spot.

Abela finished with the best total, 1,209 (average 201.5), just two ahead of Italy's Alessandra Morra (1,207) and Israel's Liat Vizenfeld who was third with 1,169 pins.

Joanna Attard, Malta's other representative in the ladies' singles, was fifth overall with 1,128 pins.

Yesterday's stunning performance took Abela's tally to six goals in 12 editions of the Med. Championships. Before the start of this year's competition, Malta led the all-time classification with 22 gold medals, two ahead of Greece in second place. Israel, third in the table, won only eight gold medals in the previous 11 editions.

The Mediterranean Championships continue today with the men's singles, followed by the double competitions and the team event.

The championships will come to a close with the Masters Finals, to be contested by the top bowlers in the other categories.

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