The newly crowned Youth and Junior National Champions were honoured earlier this month, at a presentation ceremony held by the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association, at the InterContinental Hotel in St. Julian’s.
Presentations for the recently concluded Middlesea Valletta Life National League were the main focus of the evening, but in a separate ceremony Junior champions Nicole Said and Ryan Grima were awarded trophies, as too were Youth champions Tiziana Carannante and Rankin Camilleri.
The National Junior Championships is for Under-16 bowlers, and is played to a simple 12-game format over two sessions, with separate male and female categories. The total pinfall after all games are concluded decide the final outcome, and after the initial six games, Nicole Said was already atop of the girls’ division on 808 pins, ahead of Sabrina D’Emanuele and Christabel Grima in second and third respectively. Nicole managed to retain her lead and claim the title after the second series, in spite of a strong comeback from Cristabel Grima, who finished second ahead of D’Emanuele in third place.
Eventual boys’ winner Ryan Grima also led after six games having played a good game average of 166.8 pins. Gabriel Borg lay second while third place was occupied by Philip Gruppetta, who also forms part of the Special Olympics squad who train and play regularly at the SuperBowl. The top three placings remained the same after day two, Grima being confirmed Champion.
The Youth Championships (Under-23) were played over two qualifying rounds, followed by a stepladder final for the top three bowlers in each category. Tiziana Carannante and Rankin Camilleri both led their divisions from day one, qualifying in first place for the respective finals. Second and third placed qualifiers for the ladies were Stephanie Said and Jade Cosaitis, while Justin Caruana Scicluna and Matthew Cossai joined Rankin in the male division.
Stephanie Said faced Jade Cosaitis in the female semi-final, easily winning it 160–109 to go up against Carannante in the final, knowing she would have to beat her twice to claim the title. She managed to take the first game 153–167, but then a 187–135 win for Carrannte in game two clinched it for the top seed.
In the men’s semi-final, Justin Caruana Scicluna knocked out Matthew Cossai with a 199–181 win, to earn his place in the final against Camilleri. In a mirror image of the girls’ final he also won the first game, 205–213 the score line, but then Rankin came back to win the decisive second game 204–163 to claim the championship.