Saturday saw the conclusion of the Mixed Team event, followed by the male and female Masters Finals in the 14th Mediterranean Championships, at the Bowling Pedralbes Centre in Barcelona.
Malta’s only medal hope on the final day, Sue Abela, walked off with a well deserved bronze medal, but could so easily have gone all the way after her stunning individual performance during the qualifying events.
After the Maltese team finished in sixth place among the 13 participating nations in the team competition, each player’s qualifying totals from that and also the singles and doubles events were pooled together to decide the All Events classifications, from which the top eight men and women would go on to compete in the Masters Finals, with a best-of-three knock out format.
Sue Abela’s inspired overall performance over her 18 qualifying games meant she easily topped the ladies’ All Events table on 3,771 pins (209.5 ave), 302 clear of Israel’s Solene Goron in second place, but Tiziana Carannante had to be content with 17th place on 3,161 (175.6 ave).
Neither Mark Sullivan nor Neil Sullivan made the top eight in the men’s standings, although Spiteri only just missed out on a place in the finals, finishing tenth on 3,550 pins (197.2 ave) just 28 pins down on the eighth spot. Sullivan wasn’t far behind either, placing twelfth on 3,500 (194.4 ave).
Abela’s first confrontation in the Masters was against eighth seed Rhona Gill from Israel. Our national champion had little trouble in seeing her opponent off, taking the opening game 236 – 201, and then securing her pass to the Semi Finals with a 212-165 game two win.
Sue then faced Catalan bowler Sandra Torrents in the final. She suffered a low 173 in the opener to go one down, but then levelled matters with a better 212-193 equaliser to force the deciding third game. That turned out to be an absolute nail biter, going with down to the wire, with Abela losing out by a mere three pins (201-204), and had to settle for third place and a bronze medal.
The ladies’ event was eventually won by Niki Sciza from Cyprus, after she beat Torrents in the 2-0 final match. The men’s event was won by Italian Marco Reviglio, who won his final match 2-1 against local favourite, Catalonian Marcial Ovide.
Team Malta’s latest performance in these Championships, with gold medals in the Ladies Singles (Abela), Ladies Doubles (Abela/Carannante) and also the All Events (Abela) means that Malta’s overall lead in the historical medals table has been extended to 29 golds, four better than nearest rivals Greece on 25, and Italy back in third on 12 golds.
Malta’s participation in the MCC was made possible thanks to the backing of KSU and the MOC, and the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association, with training facilities afforded by the Eden SuperBowl..