Malta’s Women’s Doubles Table Tennis team has netted Malta’s second gold medal of this year’s Games of the Small States of Europe.

Malta’s Women’s Doubles team was made up of Maria-Carmelia Iacob and Renata Strbikova. 

The duo came into the tournament as the reigning champions: they brought home the gold medal in the 2023 GSSEs on home soil as well.

They emerged from the pool stage with two victories from two matches – a 3-1 win over Cyprus and a 3-0 win over Iceland.

They then withstood the challenge from last 2023 GSSE silver medallists Luxembourg in the semi-final, as Malta emerged 3-1 victors to set up the Gold Medal match against Cyprus.

They had already beaten Cyprus earlier in the day during the pool stages, and found no issue in doing so again – winning the match with a 3-0 scoreline after triumphing 11-8, 11-8, and 11-3 in each respective set.

Earlier in the day, Jessica Vella won Malta’s first gold medal of the tournament as she triumphed in the Women’s Kata class in karate.

Meanwhile, also in table tennis, Malta’s Men’s Doubles team secured a bronze medal.

The doubles team, made up of Felix Wetzel and Dmitrij Prokopcov, topped their pool after 3-0 victories over Monaco and Cyprus and a 3-1 victory over Andorra – but fell to a 3-2 defeat against Luxembourg in the semi-final, despite having been two sets up.

This meant that the duo would have to settle for a bronze medal.

The semi-final was a rematch of the 2023 GSSE final, in which Luxembourg had also emerged victorious.

Malta’s table tennis selection had been under the microscope in the run-up to the 2023 games, and was again under scrutiny in the run-up to these games, after the national men’s champion Gabriel Grixti was left off the team.

Grixti cried foul at the fact that selectors had favoured athletes who were granted a passport by merit over those who compete locally, but selectors from the Malta Olympic Committee rebuffed the allegations, stating that the qualification criteria was known months in advance.

In the women’s team, both Iacob and Strbikova were granted a Maltese passport by merit in the run-up to the 2023 GSSEs.  Strbikova is Czech-born and represented the Czech Republic at the 2004 Olympic Games, while Iacob is Romanian-born.

Malta won another bronze medal on Tuesday courtesy of Ibrahim Halil Koska, who participated in the Men’s Kumite 84kg+ category in karate.