Two Silver and one Bronze medal for Team Malta
The 17th edition of the Mediterranean darts cup staged in Poissy, France came to an end on Saturday with Team Malta claiming three medals in total – Silver in the Team and Singles event and Bronze in the Overall. The national team, composed of four players Norbert Attard, David Attard, Godfrey Abela and John Agius, kicked off their international commitments on Thursday in the Team Event. In the opening group match, Malta suffered a 7-9 defeat to Romania but two exceptional performances against Greece 9-6 and Cyprus 9-4 in the remaining group matches saw the Maltese team qualify for knock-out stage.
Day two featured matches from the singles and pairs competition with John Agius stealing the show reaching the semi-final stage in the individual competition defeating E. Pantelidis (Greece) 4-0; R. Negot (ROU) 4-1; D. Carrasco (Catalonia) 4-3 along the way. Norbert and David Attard were eliminated at the last 16 stage with Godfrey Abela a round earlier. In the afternoon, the pairs competition took place with both Maltese pairs failing to reach the semi-finals.
Day three can only be described as a rollercoaster ride for the Maltese contingent with many ups and downs along the way. First up was John Agius with another brilliant performance as he defeated A. Frim of Romania 4-1 in the singles event to reach the final in this competition. Next up, Team Malta in what ended up to be the best performance of the entire tournament in their semi-final against host nations France. In a first to nine leg match, the Maltese team found themselves 8-4 down but a spirited comeback saw the Maltese team win all the remaining five legs to claim a 9-8 victory and a berth in the final. After an after- noon’s rest, first up was John Agius in the singles final against local boy Jacques Labre. Leading 3-1 in a first to four legs, Agius could not get over the winning line with Labre claiming the gold medal in a 4-3 victory. The final match on schedule was the Team event with Malta facing Romania for the second time in this competition. Unfortunately, this time the Maltese were on the wrong end of a comeback as Romania managed to claim gold in a 9-7 win despite trailing the Maltese 74 at one stage.
Andre Zammit, Public Relations officer said: “At first there is obviously a slight disappointment of losing two finals from a winning position but overall another successful international appointment for our national team, especially considering that two out of the four players representing Malta were making their debut at this event – John Agius and David Attard.”
XVII Mediterranean Cup Roll of Honour: Men’s overall – 1st France 58 -
points; 2nd Romania 46 points; 3rd Malta 38 points; 4th Turkey 26 points; 5th Catalonia 20 points; 6th Gibraltar 18 points; 7th Cyprus 14 points; 8th Greece 12 points. Men’s team – 1st Romania; 2nd Malta; 3rd France and Catalonia. Men’s singles – 1st J. Labre (FRA); 2nd J. Agius (MLT); 3rd A. Frim (ROU) and K. Pantelidis (GRE). Men’s pairs – 1st France; 2nd Gibraltar; 3rd Turkey and Romania. Ladies overall – 1st Catalonia and Greece A 18 points; 3rd Turkey A 14 points; 4th France A 12 points; 5th Turkey B & France B 6 points; 7th Greece B 4 points; 8th Romania 0 points.