The women’s and men’s teams made Malta proud yesterday as they both won the gold medal in the teams’ event at the Liechtenstein Games.

These were the first gold medals for Malta at these Games. And the honour of being the first to win a gold fell to the women’s team who finished their commitments with an excellent 100 per cent record – five wins from five matches.

For the women, it was their third consecutive win in as many tournaments. In fact, they had also triumphed in the previous two editions held for the first time here in 1999 and then in Malta in 2003.

The women’s team yesterday beat Cyprus 3-0 in the morning to assure themselves of the gold medal. Then they also beat Liechtenstein 3-0 in the afternoon, even if the team included reserves Colette Sultana and Johanna Rizzo.

They therefore secured the gold without losing a single set – a truly memorable run of wins.

The team was composed of Diane Desira, Anna Olivieri Munroe, Theresa Brousson, and Colette Sultana and Johanna Rizzo as the reserves.

The following were the results of yesterday’s women’s matches:

Malta-Cyprus 3-0

Theresa Brousson bt Femke Eliens 3-0

Anna Olivieri Munroe bt Cristina Vrahirni 3-0

Diane Desira bt Vaso Karasava 3-0

Malta-Liechtenstein 3-0

Johanna Rizzo bt Nicole Bechem 12-10, 11-5, 11-6

Colette Sultana bt Petrina Davey 11-5, 13-11, 11-5

Diane Desira bt Elke Nestler 11-9, 11-8, 11-5

The Men’s team celebrated their win in style soon after Bradley Hindle Deguara’s one-sided match was over.

The Maltese contingent in the hall congratulated the Maltese winners who were ecstatic, this being their first ever gold medal win in such a tournament.

But the celebrations were somewhat marred when later in the evening, it became known that Liechtenstein had lodged a protest against the inclusion of the injured Joe Desira in the Malta team.

They contended that he should never have been included and it seems as if they accused the Maltese of making use of the player’s services when they knew he would not last the match.

In actual fact, Desira lost the first match 11-0 and then withdrew, giving the home side a 3-0 win in that game. But after the match Malta Squash official Ivan Balzan said they had every right to withdraw the injured Desira from the match. He explained that Desira had played an exceptionally good match in the morning against Andorra and won 3-0. Before the match against Liechtenstein he was visited by the physiotherapist and confirmed that he was ready to play. But during the first match, he felt the pain of the injury suffered and Balzan withdrew the player after consulting the competition’s delegate.

The Malta squad is now awaiting eagerly for the outcome of the protest. Balzan said the result is expected sometime this morning.

The match itself was vibrating to say the least

The following were the results of yesterday’s men’s matches:

Malta-Andorra 3-2

Carl Camilleri-R. Hotchandani 0-3

Mark Lupi-L. Suarez 0-3

Daniel Zammit Lewis-D. Costa 3-0

Joe Desira-J. Ventura 3-0

Brad. Hindle Deguara-E. Rosell 3-0

Malta-Liechtenstein 3-2

Carl Camilleri-Oliver Stahl 2-3

M. Lupi-Finlay Davey 0-3

Daniel Zammit Lewis-Peter Maier 3-0

J. Desira-L. Schnarwiler 0-3

Brad. Hindle Deguara-Marcel Rothmund 3-0.