Malta shooters pose with members of the Malta Sport shooting Federation. Photo: Kurt Aquilina
Malta registered its record third gold medal in Games of the Small States of Europe shooting on Saturday as shooter Clive Farrugia and Marcello Attard finished first and second in the skeet competition.
This win makes the Games a massive success for the Malta Sport Shooting Federation after Eleanor Bezzina won gold in the pistol event, and Matthew Grech won the top medal in double trap.
With Grech on the podium was Malta stalwart William Chetcuti on the day, and on Saturday, Farrugia had Gozitan shooter Attard accompanying him as Cypriot shooter Nicolas Vasilou finished with bronze at the Ta’ Kandja shooting range.
The morning shooting was everything but a clear indicator of what was to come in the afternoon as Vasilou qualified first with a 121 finish. Farrugia followed with 118 hits while Attard was the last to qualify with 110 hits.
However, when the shooting mattered, Malta’s shooters had their head in the game and Farrugia started out brightly, moving into the top position after the first shootaround. Attard was less accurate and in the first elimination round, escaped last place when Petur Gunnarsson finished with 22 hits.
It turned into Malta versus Cyprus and Attard began to get into his rhythm. Farrugia fell into the second position after slight misses as Vasilou shot himself to the front of the pack. Once more, Attard leapfrogged Cyprus’ Sotiris Antoniou to force a two versus one situation before Vasilou himself bucked under the pressure with bronze assure to leave both Maltese shooters to fight between themselves.
In the final round of shooting, Farrugia was pin-point and secured the win with 51 hits, while Attard finished with 49.
