Malta’s Chef de Mission Pippo Psaila was once again happy and satisfied after another positive day for Malta.

He had been over the moon the previous day after Malta had scooped two gold medals, one silver and six bronze, ending the day celebrating with champagne at the Fenix Hotel.

Malta won a gold medal in the table-tennis team event (Simon Gerada and Andrezej Makowski) and three bronzes in Trap shooting (Frans Pace) and swimming Angela Galea (2), one of them in the 4 x 200m. The other members of the team were Lara Callus, Francesca Paolella and Davina Mangion.

However, despite yesterday’s successes, Malta was occupying seventh place in the medals table with three golds, one silver and nine bronze.

Angela Galea was the contingent’s darling yesterday as she claimed two bronzes to add to her gold medal she had won on the first day of competition.

It was also positive even in other spheres because in tennis, Lisa Camenzuli and Boris Pashanski advanced to the semi-finals and they are therefore both assured of winning a bronze medal, at least.

Also in table-tennis, Gerada and Makowski also won their first qualifying group match in the singles competition and already seem to be close to the medal zone in that event.

These are certainly positive anecdotes concerning Maltese sport and it seems as if there is enough ground to hope for an even better ending when Saturday arrives.

In fact, Psaila also said yesterday that he felt Malta was well on target. “Our expectations are being met and we are close to what we promised, that is close to our haul at the San Marino Games four years ago. As we have already said, there have been some pleasant surprises, but we are also having some disappointments. But overall, we are satisfied with the performances of the Maltese athletes,” he said.

Knowing what’s happening around us these days here in Andorra, it seems obvious that the Malta Olympic Committee has opted for the best decision in being selective in their choice of athletes for these Games.

It would have been useless to send athletes who had not reached the Minimum Qualifying Standards as the levels are higher than usual.

We just hope that the Maltese athletes will continue reaping the desired fruit in the final three days.