Malta’s William Vella and a good number of followers were left bitterly disappointed at the cruel destiny which faced the young Maltese shooter in the air rifle competition.
Vella missed a bronze medal at the last post. In fact, after qualifying for the barrage (final six) in third place, he maintained his position till the sixth shot following which it was Liechtenstein’s Michael Mattle who took over third place.
The latter appeared certain to finish ahead of Vella till the eighth shot. By the ninth, Mattle had a 1.7 lead over Vella, but when it seemed to be all over, Vella hit a good round of 10.6 in the 10th round, while Mattle could only hit an 8.8, a score which saw Vella joining Mattle in equal third place, thus forcing the shoot-off.
It was here that Vella scored 7.6 to Mattle’s 10.6 who therefore clinched the bronze medal.
At the end of the competition, Vella could not hide his disappointment. “I had prepared well for this event, but it was tough from the start. In fact, the battle for third place was not just between us two, but there was also a strong challenge from Iceland’s Gudmundur Christensen,” he said.
Coach Kisvardai said after the final that Vella was an unlucky boy. “He had worked hard for it and was very close to winning that medal. However, it was all mental. And that is what we will have to work upon in future if the boy and the others are to show further improvement in this field. It was a completely new experience for him to be taking part in a shoot-off for a medal at such level.
“I feel sorry for the boy. But this is sport. It was a tight contest, right from the start and it could have gone either way,” he said.
The competition was won by another Liechtenstein shooter, Marc-Andre Kessler who obtained 685 points. Second was Kostis Pitsilloudis of Cyprus on 680.3, Mattle obtained 662.6 and 10.6 in the shoot-off while Vella had the same score, but 7.9 in the shoot off.
Meanwhile, Marianna Kisvardai could only finish eighth in the women’s air-rifle competition, thus failing to reach the final.
She scored a total of 470 points, just ahead of the bottom two, Manina Bologna of San Marino and Jorunn Hardardottir of Iceland.
Carole Calmes of Luxembourg won the gold medal with a score of 499.1. The silver went to Marilena Constantinou of Cyprus and Alvina Barrugues of Andorra took the bronze.