Competitive play began yesterday in the IX Mediterranean Challenge Cup in San Marino, where nine Mediterranean states are each competing with teams of four bowlers (two female, two male).
The Maltese team was selected through a qualifying event held recently by the MTBA at the Eden SuperBowl, St. Julian's, and the bowlers who earned the right to represent their country were Sue Abela and Lorraine Casha in the female section, and Rankin Camilleri and Brian Farrugia in the male section.
Team Malta are competing against Cyprus, Gibraltar, Greece, Israel, Italy, Morocco and Turkey, as well as host country San Marino.
The day's play rolled off with the Ladies' Singles event, which saw Sue Abela, otherwise known as 'Queen of the Mediterranean Challenge Cup', get off to a flying start with a 257 in the first game which turned out to be her best of the six game set, although she never dipped below the 200 mark, her lowest being a 205 in game five.
She dominated the 17-strong ladies field, shooting a tournament record of 1,348 pins (224.6 average) to reward her the gold medal. The silver medal went to Natassa Rovithaki of Greece while Italy's Christina Sgrosso took bronze.
Lorraine Casha suffered a couple of set-backs with lows of 154 and 166 in the second and third games respectively. However she managed to recover very well as she finished with a brace of high games (219, 245) in games five and six.
The Men's Singles event followed, and although it was Rankin Camilleri who got off to the better start for Malta, Brian Farrugia was also looking highly confident and comfortable on the lanes. His confidence paid off with an amazing 'perfect' 300 game in the fifth, the first one to be rolled in the nine-year history of the tournament. Farrugia, like Abela topped 200 in all six games and ended on a great 1,390 tally (231.6 ave), claiming the silver medal. Farrugia was robbed of gold due to an incredible 1,474 session from Italian Domenico Maddaloni, yet another record series for the tournament, while the bronze went to local hero Nico Gasperoni (San Marino).
Rankin Camilleri's good start of 231 and 213 was jolted slightly by a poor 148 in game three. Rankin was quick to shrug that off and bowled out with a good string of 244, 226 and a 186 to finish. That left him in ninth place from a total of 18 male competitors, on a sound 1,248 total (208 average).
Malta's participation was made possible by the support of the MTBA, the Eden SuperBowl and also the Malta Olympic Committee.
LATE NEWS: Sue Abela and Lorraine Casha won the Gold medals in the Ladies Doubles event, again shooting a tournament record series of 2,588 (team average of 431.3) in doing so. That makes it two golds and one silver for tournament leaders, Team Malta.
Silver went to the Greek pair of Natassa Rovithaki and Despoina Crysanthi, while third place was claimed by Christina Sgrosso and Chiara Roiati from Italy.