Young Maltese shooter William Chetcuti, 20, added another honour to his impressive list yesterday when he finished third in the Double Trap competition at the Mediterranean Games in Almeria, Spain.

It was the second medal won by a Maltese in the discipline at the Mediterranean Games. In 1993, in France, Emmanuel Abela had also won a bronze medal.

It was Chetcuti’s first ever participation at the Mediterranean Games. Earlier this month he had won the gold medal at the Andorra Games for European Small States with a score of 179/200.

Yesterday a better score of 180 only enabled him to take the bronze as, quite obviously, the standard at the Mediterranean Games is higher than that of the Small Nations Games.

In the opening three rounds, Chetcuti hit 45, 47 and 44 to finish on 136, one strike away from world record holder and Games Record holder Daniele di Spinio of Italy on 137 and three away from another Italian, Marco Innocenti, who was leading the pack on 139.

In the final, Innocenti was still in peak form as he hit another 45 to maintain his lead, finishing on 184. Di Spigno and Chetcuti both claimed 44 and therefore Chetcuti had to content himself with the bronze medal.

Innocenti registered a Games record of 139 yesterday morning after the opening three rounds.

Di Spigno had established the world record of 194 in 1999 in Tampere in Finland. Two years earlier, in the Bari Games, he set a new Games record for 187 which is still in his hands today.

Among the honours Chetcuti has collected so far, apart from dominating the local scene, Chetcuti has won the European Championship for juniors twice and on one occasion he also managed to establish a new world record for the event.

In 2002, he had also won a bronze medal at the more illustrious Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England.

In the meantime, Malta’s second competitor at the event, Emmanuel Grima, failed to find the form which enabled him to claim a silver medal at Andorra. Poor rounds of 37, 34 and 38 kept him in a distant 11th place on 109 hits from 150. Obviously he failed to make it to the final.

Malta’s Chef de Mission Pippo Psaila and the whole Maltese clan at Almeria were obviously euphoric yesterday evening. Psaila was quoted as saying that Chetcuti’s medal at this level was quite significant and added that he was optimistic that there could be another medal in the offing, possibly through Carol Galea in the Half Marathon.

Also yesterday, Andrew Borg made his debut at these Games in round one of the tournament, where he finished 11th out of 37 competitors.

Angela Galea was also in action in the 50m butterfly heats and finished seventh in heat one in a time of 30.01 seconds. She finished an overall 13th from 15 swimmers in two heats.

In football, Malta was eliminated after a 5-0 defeat against Turkey.

Malta, who suffered all the goals in the second half, was the only team to finish without any points. In other matches yesterday, Morocco drew 0-0 with Italy and Algeria beat Greece 1-0.

Maltese in action today

Three Maltese athletes will be taking part today.

Andrew Borg will be playing the second of four rounds in the golf competition.

Angela Galea will be taking part in the 200m butterfly heats.

And wrestler Abraham Vassallo will be taking part in the men’s preliminary contests being held in the 84 kg. category.