After Sue Abela’s singles gold medal on the opening day of the 14th Mediterranean Championships (MCC) in Barcelona, the ladies were again in action early on day two for the doubles event, in which Malta was again represented by Abela, alongside teammate and national youth champion Tiziana Carannante.
That pairing, combining youth as well as a wealth of experience, proved to be more than equal to the sturdy challenge from field of twelve Mediterranean nations, topping the standings to add yet another gold, to Malta’s long list of international honours.
While Carannante proved to be the more consistent of the two on the day, her partner suffered rather an up-and-down start to the session, although Abela’s hi-games of 266, 212 and a 236 boosted the team effort for a 2,340 joint total to take first place.
It was a close run thing however, going down to the last frame of the sixth and final game with duos from Greece, France and also Cyprus hot on Malta’s heels. The Greeks took silver just 34 points behind Malta on 2,306, followed by third placed France on 2,284.
Interviewed by Keith Hale for the international sports press immediately after the doubles event, Abela commented, “It was a lot tougher on the lanes today. I was a bit stiffer and struggled on lanes 5 and 6 and I wasn’t quite as focused as yesterday, but we managed to win the gold, so all is good”.
Asked for her take on the morning’s achievement, Carannante said, “I’m pleased to add gold to the two bronze MCC medals (from previous editions). I think that being left-handed I had a small advantage as I didn’t have to move so much as (right-handed) Sue.“
The Maltese team of Mark Spiteri and Neil Sullivan placed fourth in the men’s doubles event, missing out on a bronze medal by just 40 pins over six games.
Spiteri’s solid 1243 series together with a 1190 from Sullivan gave them a 2433 total, just shy of third which went to Israel’s Ron Berlov and Lior Koren on 1273.
The silver award went to Habib Dogan and Taygun Erkeskin from Turkey, while Stefanidis Georgios and Krizinis Evangelos from Greece won gold.