MOC president Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco and Chef de Mission Pippo Psaila were overjoyed with the Double Trap competition results following which William Chetcuti and Emmanuel Grima emerged as the gold and silver medal winners.

It was Malta's fourth gold medal and sixth silver medal of these Games.

The MOC president said: "This must be ranked as another memorable day and another great moment for Maltese sport. These results confirm that our shooters are working on the right track.

"Without doubt, William Chetcuti has shown that he is in a class of his own here, having dominated the event with such an impeccable performance."

Farrugia Sacco showered praise on the young Chetcuti, 20, after the latter's brilliant performance yesterday in winning the gold medal in double trap for the second successive time. He said: "This youngster is highly talented and we have to continue nurturing him. He is definitely a great future hope for Maltese sport. But even Emmanuel Grima and Frans Pace should be congratulated on their achievement, though perhaps in the trap event, we could have done a little better had luck been on Frans Pace's part."

Farrugia Sacco, however, was only partially satisfied with the results of the Maltese competitors when speaking to the Malta Independent yesterday afternoon.

He said: "Of course we have to wait for the remaining competitions to come to an end. So far we have almost reached our targets. We just need a few more golds which should enable us to get a better rating in the standings. It is not the number of medals we are after. The quality is more important.

"In actual fact, I must say the MOC is very happy with most of the performances of the athletes but not satisfied with all the results. As we have already said, we have had some disappointments in certain disciplines which we will have to evaluate when we go back home. On the other hand, we have also had some pleasant surprises and this obviously shows that we are working in the right direction.

"All this confirms that we were right in being selective when coming to select the athletes for participation in the Games. As everyone here must be aware, the levels are getting higher with every edition, though most of the athletes suffered from the altitude problem," he said.

Chef de Mission Pippo Psaila said he was glad for the two shooters on having achieved such a success. "William just confirmed his potential while Grima went one step better than he had done in Malta. The shooters have given us some major satisfactions once again and it is only fair to congratulate them on their achievements," he said.

Asked to comment on the results and performances of the Maltese athletes till yesterday, Psaila said that these were very close to expectations.

He said: "I can say that our targets have almost been reached and there is still one final day in which we can see our athletes winning more golds to push Malta further up the medals table. I can predict that we can win 9 golds in all here. With the four we have already won, I am convinced that on the final day we will be successful again in table-tennis, Carol Galea, athletics relays (men and women) and tennis. We have to wait till the final day (today)," he added.

Pippo also spoke about his absence from the MOC for 18 months. "I think we lost 18 months. Until last December, I was considering our withdrawal from these Games as nothing had been done. But now that it is almost over, I think it was worth participating. I reiterate that we were correct in being selective. Considering our limited budget we have performed a little miracle in favour of Maltese sport," he added.

I also asked Psaila whether there will be any bonus for the successful athletes. He replied: "We would only be too glad to repay the athletes for their sacrifices and their successes on the field of play. But we lack the finances to make such a payment. If someone presents himself with a Lm20,000 sponsorship we will immediately pass them on to the athletes," he added.