Basketball girls strike gold

The Maltese girls won the second gold medal for Malta yesterday in this year’s edition of the Games as they beat Luxembourg 52-50 in a fine come-from-behind win.

The Maltese had a good start, even taking an eight-point lead, but Luxembourg hit back strongly and at the end of the second session, they were leading 27-16.

The Maltese girls managed to reduce the gap further by the end of the third session (40-32), but it was in the fourth and final session that the Maltese produced their best, scoring 20 points to Luxembourg’s 10 to turn the result in their favour.

They certainly deserved the congratulations of some members of the contingent who were present to watch the match and give their support to the local lasses.

Thanks to this win, the Maltese girls finished on top with three wins from three matches. Earlier, they had beaten Cyprus and Iceland. It was the third time that the Maltese girls won this tournament after their successes in 2003 and 2011.

Best scorers for the team yesterday were Cristina Grima and Ashleigh Vella, both with 10 points.

Three other bronze medals were won in tennis singles by Elaine Genovese and Francesca Curmi and by Genovese and Matthew Asciak in the Mixed Doubles.

Both girls lost their singles semifinals. Genovese went down to Cypriot girl Raluca Serban 6-1 6-1, while Curmi lost to Eleonora Molinaro of Luxembourg 6-4 6-3.

The third bronze medal arrived in the Mixed doubles semifinal where Asciak and Genovese faced Molinaro and Nastasi of Luxembourg. They started well, winning the first set 6-1, but then lost the second with a similar scoreline. The third and final set was keenly contested, but the Luxembourg pair emerged winners in a tiebreak (10-8).

Today, the tennis players will again be in action. Genovese and Curmi will be aiming for gold in the women’s doubles final against Siopacha and Serban of Cyprus, while Matthew Asciak faces Omar Sudzuka in a men’s singles semifinal.

In athletics, Rebecca Sare won a bronze medal in the long jump event. She had a jump of 5.33metres to finish third. Luke Bezzina qualified for the final of the 200m clocking 22.4 seconds. Janet Richards finished 4th in the 400m.

In swimming, Andrew Chetcuti finished second to win a silver medal in the 50m freestyle, while Matthew Zammit finished third to get the bronze. In the 100m breaststroke, Michael Stafrace finished third to claim the bronze medal.

There was disappointment for shooters William Vella and GianLuca Azzopardi who failed to qualify in the Air Rifle event.

Even archers Patrick Zammit and Daniel Schembri were eliminated. However, both advanced to the round of 16 where Zammit lost to Seywert of Luxembourg and Schembri narrowly missed out against Bega, also of Luxembourg, 137-136.

Other results

Women’s beach 0-2.

Men’s beach volley: Malta-Iceland 2-0.

Women’s volleyball: 0-3.

volley:

MaltaMonaco Malta-Luxembourg