The Ten Pin Bowling competition was the first to start early yesterday afternoon, and the Maltese were in splendid form with Sue Abela and her son Justin Caruana Scicluna dominating the competition after a rather slow start.
The couple won yesterday’s mixed doubles event, giving the Malt team an overall lead of more than 200 hundred pins over the Sicilians. Four teams took part with the other Maltese combination composed of Neil Sullivan and Tiziana Carannante.
The Scilian teams were made up of Francesco Bellomonte and Providenza Rapisarda, with the other team composed of Daniela Graziano and Salvatore Polizotto. The latter couple had a very good startas the Maltese, especially Sue Abela and Justin Caruana Scicluna failed to live up to their expectations.
However half way through the competition of six matches, Sue Abela and Justin Caruana Scicluna started a series of impressive strike to claim the overall lead and hold it till the very end. The Maltese couple finished with a total of 2484 pins, with Justin Caruana Scicluna finishing in top spot with a personal total of 1283 pins.
Sue Abela finished third overall with a total of 1201 pins whilst the Maltese dominance was completed with the third placing gained by Malta champion Neil Sullivan who totaled a personal 1175.
The second Maltese couple composed of Neil Sullivan and Tiziana Carannante finished third with a total of 2262 pins, just 18 pins form second placed couple Graziano-Pollizzotto.
In the individual placings Tiziana Carannante finished in fifth place with 1087 pins.
Th Ten Pin Bowling will continue today with two competitions that will bring this event to an end. There will be the Doubles competition and the Team event. Coach Rick Vogelesang was very pleased with the overall performance of the team.
He said that his players were rather tired after the trip because they practically had not slept all night. However he said that Sue and Justin are great players and when they start playing how they know, than there is now way stopping them.
He concluded that he is more than optimistic on the chances of the Malta team winning the overall Bowling competition.
Other athletes in action yesterday were the Pool players who had a rather easy task against a Syracuse selection. This match however is not considered as an official part of the competition between Malta and Sicily.
Until going to press the Maltese were dominating and leading 10-2 against Syracuse. The match is on a best out of 16, and four more matches had to be played late in the evening as the encounter was postponed because of the opening ceremony.
The Maltese players Miguel Falzon, Christopher Tabone, Antoine Aquilina, and Christopher Mills had a field day as they dominated their opponents. Stiffer opposition is expected today when the Maltese face the Sicilian selection in a match valid for the fifth edition of the Friendship Games of the Mediterranean.