Maltese ‘double trap’ shooter William Chetcuti finished in eighth place in the European Championships held yesterday in Osijek in Croatia.

William Chetcuti hit 44 in the first round, a straight of 50 in the second and 46 in the third to total 140 clays after the first phase.

Germany’s Andreas Loew finished on top in the first phase with 146 followed by Italy’s Francesco D’Aniello with 145. D’Aniello was recently beaten by William Chetcuti in the Pescara Mediterranean Games.

William Chetcuti finished in sixth place together with Vitaly Fokeev of Russia, Italy’s Daniele Di Spigno winner of the gold medal in Pescara, and Great Britain’s Steven Scott.

A shoot off was necessary to determine the sixth place which was won by Fokeev with 15 clays closely followed by Di Spigno with 14. William Chetcuti was relegated to eighth place after this shoot off, thus missing the final barrage.

In this barrageAndreas Loew lost his composure and his top spot when he only hit 44 clays against D’Aniello’s 47, who won the championships with a total of 192. Sweden’s hakan Dhalby won second place after another shootoff with Hungary’s Ronald Gerebics and Andreas Loew.

In the Double Trap Junior competition Malta was represented by Nathan Lee Xuereb who fared rather badly finishing last among the twelve youngsters.

Russia’s Artem Nekrasov hit 48, 47 and 47 in the first phase and 49 in the barrage for an impressive score of 191.

Nathan Lee Xuereb scored 35, 33, and 34 for a total of 102. Italy’s Alessandro Chianese finished in second place with a total of 185, and Russia’s Vladimir Miroshnichenko obtained third place with a total of 182 clays