April saw the 11th edition of the Mediterranean Championships, hosted by Greece’s Hellenic Bowling Federation at the Mega-Place Bowling Centre in Chania, Crete. No fewer than nine Mediterranean nations took part in this prestigious tournament, namely Cyprus, France, Italy, San Marino, Spain, Turkey, as well as Malta and home nation Greece.
Malta’s four-person team was decided after a local qualifying tournament held at the ~Eden SuperBowl, and comprised Dennis Mercieca and Paul Baldacchino in the male category, and Sue Abela and Tiziana Carannante for the ladies division.
While the men were unable to unable to place among the medals in their extremely tough 16-strong division, the ladies did Malta proud with a personal Gold for Abela in the Singles, a bronze position in the Doubles for Abela/ Carannante, Gold again for Abela in the ‘All Events’ category, and an eventual bronze again for Sue in the ladies’ Masters Event.
Singles Event: Gold for Abela
Natassa Rovithaki of Greece only had one goal in these Championships, namely to topple Sue Abela from her unofficial status of bowling’s ‘Queen of the Mediterranean’, and the singles event was her first opportunity to achieve that this year.
The rivals traded the first three of the six games played, the home bowler opening a nominal ten-pin lead, but then Abela pulled ahead with a back three of 235-235-226, to Rovithaki’s 212-221-244 to snatch first place and the Gold with an excellent 1276, just nine points ahead of the Greek bowler in second.
Youth bowler Tiziana Carannante’s first taste of the Championships produced a sixteenth placing with a fair 971 total over six, while in the Male section, Dennis Mercieca placed thirteenth with a 1157 total, and Paul Baldacchino finished seventeenth on 1116.
Doubles Event: Carannante
proves her worth
The Maltese girls brought in more silverware thanks to their third place in the Ladies Doubles event.
Abela’s vast international experience proving of great help to Carannante, who posted a very good 1143 individual effort from her six games, coupling up with Sue’s 1189 for a 2332 team total. The event was won by the French team on 2396, followed by Italy ahead of Malta on 2391.
In the Men’s event Mercieca and Baldacchino, who earlier had picked up a muscle injury, finished seventh from nine on 2363. That category was won by the Italian pairing of Marco Reviglio and Maurizio Celli.
Team Event: High hopes rattled
The final qualifying event was the four-bowler team competition, in which team Malta had harboured high hopes for another medal placing. That aspiration failed to bear fruit however, as fifth was the best they could manage on the day.
The event was won by Turkey, France finished second and Cyprus third.
Masters’ Finals: Abela brings in
more silverware for Malta
Each bowler’s cumulative pinfall from the Singles, Doubles and Team events decided the All Events Standings, from which the top eight men and women would go forward to the Masters’ Knock-Out finals. Sue Abela’s three individual performances rewarded her with the top spot in the Ladies’ division, and so another Gold medal, ahead of Italy’s Rafaella Fusco and Natassa Rovithaki of Greece in third place.
Sue was the sole Maltese bowler to figure in the thrilling Masters Final stages which were played to a ‘knock-out’ best-of-three game format.
First up she came up against Turkey’s Gulhan Aksular, winning it in two straight games (220-212, 185-167) to advance to the second final stage among the top four ladies. Abela would face Marie Gauton of France, and it was here that the Championships came to an end for her, the French bowler taking the match 198-243, 188-238 for a 2-0 victory.
This put Abela in Masters third place for another bronze medal, and the Ladies’ Championship was eventually won 2-0 by Gauton, against Daniela Pialino from Italy in the final match, which was of some consolation to Abela, her having been eliminated only by the eventual Champion.
The Men’s Masters event came to an end with a three game final between Spain’s Melvin Ocando and Maurizio Celli from Italy – the Spaniard winning the championship title by two games to one (250-206, 253-256, 203-163).
Dennis Mercieca finished the tournament on a good 3,566 total (198.1 game average) but had to make do with tenth place, missing out on the Masters finals (top eight) by just 51 pins. Paul Baldacchino finished in the penultimate 17th place on 3,357 pins.
After 11 editions of the Mediterranean Championships, Malta still tops the medal table and has actually improved thanks to this year’s two Gold placings. Nearest rivals Greece failed to take any Gold Medals in this edition of the Championships, in spite of their playing on home ground – yet further confirmation of Malta’s capacity in this particular discipline in the International arena.
Team Malta’s participation was made possible by the backing of the Malta Olympic Committee and the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association, while the Eden SuperBowl provides training facilities for the Maltese national squads, including the four bowlers who represented Malta in Chania for the 11th Mediterranean Championships.