Malta’s men’s team won their first ever bronze medal at the Games for European Small States yesterday after beating Iceland 2-1 in the match for third place.

On the other hand, the women’s team failed at least to hold on to the silver medal they had won two years ago as they lost the semi-final against Andorra. Then they also lost against Iceland 3-0 in the match for third place, thus also losing the opportunity to win a bronze medal, at least.

The men started with a match against Cyprus in which Brent Law lost in the last 30 seconds against the winner of the individual gold medal. After two walk-overs, one on each side, the Cypriots won 2-1.

In the match for the bronze medal, Malta beat Iceland 2-1. And here, Brent Law and Evgeny Ulanov won both their games on an Ippon as Iceland got their point from a walkover.

In the women’s event, after an opening round bye, Malta opened its programme with a semi-final defeat against Andorra, who had beaten Cyprus in the previous round.

Malta’s Joanna Camilleri lost to Salles Lopez, who was beaten by Marcon Bezzina in the individual event. With Malta conceding a walkover, Andorra ran out winners, earning their place in the final.

In the match for the bronze medal Malta lost against Iceland 3-0 with Joanna Camilleri losing by a hold down in the middle weight. Marcon Bezzina played her bout against her opponent. She drew the match as no points were registered but the victory was given to the Icelandic girl as the team had already won the tie as Malta had earlier conceded a walkover.

Malta fielded only two judokas in this competition - Marcon Bezzina and Joanna Camilleri. Both had won gold medals in the individual competitions earlier in the week.