The Malta athletics team had mixed fortunes on day three in Andorra, winning four medals, but seeing Rachid Chouhal relinquish his long jump title.

Chouhal was one of three Maltese athletes to take silver as Nikolai Portelli finished third in the men's 400m.

Rachid Chouhal was denied gold by the narrowest possible margin. The Maltese athlete was just a single centimetre away from gold medalist Mikhalkevitch. The distance of 7.61 metres was not enough to beat the Luxembourg jumper.

Chouhal led the long jump final from the beginning, recording a jump of 7.61m in the first round. But he was overtaken by the gold medallist on the last valid jump, that is, in the fifth round.

At the end of the event, he rued the unprofessional way in which the competition was handled. “The judges removed my markers during the competition and the sandpit was not laid down in the proper manner”, he argued.

Chouhal was disappointed with his silver but in contrast Martina Xuereb and Rebecca Camilleri were delighted with silver in the women's 400m and long jump competition respectively.

The 14-year-old Xuereb produced a lifetime best performance as she grabbed an unexpected silver. “I was confident of performing well but I was pleasantly surprised to grab a silver medal. I am very happy”, said a shy Martina Xuereb.

Rebecca Camilleri was the third silver medallist on the track and field programme, finishing second in the long jump event with a leap of 5.94 metres. The 19-year-old jumper was able to improve on her bronze medal won in 2003.

Nikolai Portelli rounded off a good day for Malta winning a bronze medal in the men's 400m event.

There are good prospects that Malta will increase its medal haul as 4x100m men's team won their heat with the overall best time of 40.63 seconds.