[attach id=257067 size="medium"]Brian Galea preparing for his Trap competition, yesterday. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli[/attach]
Brian Galea was two clays short from a place in the bronze medal shoot-off in the Trap competition that came to a close at the Differdange ranges yesterday.
Having started the day in joint third place following Tuesday’s opening three rounds, Galea started his competition with a 22 yesterday but quickly recovered poise when targetting 24 clays in the fifth and final round for an overall score of 119 from 125.
That was just enough for Galea to reach the final when finishing fourth, just two clays short of Marios Sophocleous, of Cyprus, who led the way with 121.
Galea lost hold of his nerves though in the final, hitting a poor round of eight clays from a possible 15 to finish fifth overall. He was two points behind San Marino’s Manuel Mancini who booked the last berth in the shoot-off for third place.
Adonis Mylonas, of Cyprus, took the gold medal when he beat his compatriot Sophocleus in the final. Luxembourg’s Sosa Lyndon grabbed bronze after surprising Mancini in the shoot for third place.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Pisani, the other Maltese representative in the competition, failed to improve on his overnight position of 10th place.
Yesterday, he added scores of 21 and 22 to finish with an overall 107 points from a possible 125.
Andorra’s Joan Tomas Roca, 105, and Marc Miny, of Luxembourg (103) were the only ones with inferior scores to Pisani in the overall classification.
Air rifle upset
Earlier in the day, Marianna Kisvardai and Alison Vella missed out on a place in the final of the Air Rifle competition after finishing outside the top eight at the Tramsschapp range.
Kisvardai was clearly below her best form during the preliminary round stage which saw the 12 participants firing at 40 targets in four successive rounds.
With three shots left she was still with an outside chance to place eighth but her efforts were not enough as she finished 10th with an overall score of 392.1... 0.04 behind eighth-placed Giulia Guidi, of San Marino.
Vella, who was making her first showing in the Games, suffered from a modest first round score and never recovered to finish 11th overall with 391.7.
The competition was won by Cypriot shooter Artemis Panteli with a score of 203.3 points.