Saturday was indeed Malta's day, in the Mediterranean Challenge Cup VIII which was organised by the MTBA at the Eden SuperBowl, St. Julian's.

As if not satisfied with that, Sue Abela gave one of the best individual performances of her brilliant career, shooting a 1374 total over the 6 games which converts to a tremendous 229 game average. That was enough to give her a second gold in the ladies' 'All Events' division. In the men's category, Kenneth Arpa secured bronze in the men's all events on the very last shot of the tournament, beating Cypriot Costas Kyriakou into fourth place by a mere three pins over a total of eighteen games.

Team Malta's confidence was blatant, as they never faltered from the top spot throughout their 786 - 813 - 728 series, making sure that the Gold medals were in hand. Sue Abela was on fire, and having never dipped below the 200 mark in the first set, fared even better in the second putting in games of 235, 258 and 215 respectively for a supreme 708 set - 1374 for the day. Kenneth Arpa finished on 1181 pins, Lorraine Casha on 1122 and Mark Spiteri on 1107.

Sue Abela started the day in second place on 2356 pins, 93 pins behind Anastasia Rovithaki (Greece) on 2449 pins after the twelve singles and doubles games. Rovithaki shot a 1207 for the Greek team who finished fourth, giving her a tournament total of 3656 (203.1ave), 74 short of Abela in the Gold position. Bronze went to Sara Aviram of Israel.

Kenneth Arpa had been hanging on for a medal in the All Events classifications, lying third after the Singles and Doubles, but nobody expected the thrilling way in which he actually clinched bronze. As the final team game came close to it's conclusion, the bowlers and also the enthusiastic crowd new that Gold

Team Malta placed second overall in the Medals Table with their two golds, two singles and three bronze medals, second to Spain on two golds and two silvers. Our four heroes can be extremely proud of their achievements as not only did they scoop the most medals (six), but they also pocketed gold in the two most prestigious categories, the Team Event as well as Abela's All Events title.alta remains top of the historical medals table for all eight editions of the Mediterranean Challenge Cup, leading with 18 Golds against 17 for Greece. hold third place to date on 7 gold medals.