Luke Galea has secured Malta’s sixth gold medal of this year’s Small Nations Games, and its second top spot in what is an historic showing in karate.

26-year-old Galea competed in the Men’s Kumite 84kg class in karate on Wednesday, and emerged the best out of the four athletes to take part in the event.

He had a strong start to the pool stages as he beat Ryan Broder from Liechtenstein 9-0, and he followed that up with a win against Cypriot Demetris Demetriades with a 1-0 scoreline.

Galea then narrowly lost the final pool match to Tiago Serra Rodrigues from Luxembourg with a 3-2 scoreline – but he still ranked in the top two, together with Serra Rodrigues, thereby setting up a rematch in the final.

The rematch in fact went Galea’s way: he beat Serra Rodrigues 4-2, thereby securing Malta’s first gold medal of Wednesday and its sixth of the Games.

This is Malta’s second gold medal in karate after Jessica Vella won the Women’s Kata class on Tuesday.

Malta has already secured gold medals courtesy of the Women’s Doubles Team in table tennis, Sasha Gatt in swimming, Gina McNamara in athletics, and the Women’s Team in Artistic Gymnastics.