MALTA MEDALS
8 gold, 11 silver, 9 bronze
20.50 This means that Malta ends the day with a tally of 8 gold, 11 silver and nine bronze, matching the record set in Liechtenstein 2011 of eight gold medals in a foreign GSSE.
But no doubt, with three more days of competition the record is there for the taking.
That’s it for us today, we will be back tomorrow. Thanks for staying with us and follow our platforms for more GSSE content.
20.45 In table tennis Felix Wetzel and Maria Carmelia Iacob lost their respective finals in the singles competition and have to settle for silver.
20.40 The women’s team received their medals after their second place finish in the 3×3 basketball tournament. It’s a historic medal for our country, which has never managed to step on the podium in this competition.
20.25 We are coming towards the end of another hectic day at the 2025 GSSE… but there are two medals on their way as in table tennis as Felix Wetzel and Maria Carmelia Iacob reach the final of the singles competitions.
19.57 It’s over as Julia Galea wins silver and Sophie St John takes bronze… For St John this is her fifth medal of the Games.
19.48 Iceland’s Nanna Gudnunsdottir jumps to the top with a 12.150 score as Galea and St John slip to silver and bronze medal positions.
19.40 WOW JULIA GALEA IS IN GOLD MEDAL POSITION. The young gymnast is rewarded with 12.050 from the judges to go top. At the moment is a one-two for Malta in the floor.
19.36 We could have another medal in gymnastics as St John is now at the top of the floor routine on 11.950 and Julia Galea is next.
19.32 SILVER IN SWIMMING Team Malta wins it second medal of the day in the 4x100m freestyle as Victoria Balderacchi, Zoe Cawsey, Nirvana Micallef, and Michela Portelli touch home in second place in 4:21.66.
19.22 ST JOHN WINS ANOTHER GOLD!!! Impressive Sophie St John has done it again, winning another gold medal in the beam with her 12.900 score. It’s her third gold medal of the Games and the second on the day… what a star.
And with this result Malta has matched its best ever tally in a foreign GSSE with eight gold medals.
19.13 A very steady performance from Sophie St John in her beam routine. The only thing was a somewhat difficult control of her body in the final jump, but surely she has shown that she has bags of potential, this little girl…. we await the judges’ verdict. The judges reward her with 12.900 and moves to gold medal position… brilliant.
19.05 Sophie St John is minutes away from her routine in the beam as she looks to add on the gold medal won earlier in the day.
18.55 Our focus now switches to gymnastics where Team Malta is competing in the women’s beam event. Remember earlier today, Sophie St John won gold in the vault event.
18.30 BRONZE… Meanwhile an unexpected bronze medal came from Karate in the men’s -75 kg category as Heorhii Denysov was promoted to a bronze medal position after an Andorra athlete pulled out injured before the semi-finals.
18.22 Gold medal for Luxembourg in the women’s 3×3 as they beat Malta 19-15.
18.12 Luxembourg are in control in the final against Malta as they are currently leading 14-11 with just over three minutes left.
17.58 Meanwhile, the men’s rugby sevens team were again in rampant form as they thrashed San Marino 50-14 to make it two wins out of two and show their clear intentions that they are vying for the gold medal.
17.53 Now the expectations among the Maltese clan is for the 3×3 final that is going to start in ten minutes time as Steffie DeMartino, Kirsty Galea, Danika Galea and Amber Melgoza will go for gold against Luxembourg.
17.40 SILVER! Sasha Gatt managed to secure a silver medal after finishing second in her 1,500m freestyle race.
16.25 BRONZE! Gianluca Chetcuti finished third in the men’s trap shooting final, despite a remarkable qualification this morning, where he had placed first. Fellow Maltese shooter James Galea ended fourth.
16.10 GOLD MEDAL ALERT! Sophie St John won the gold medal in the Vault apparatus with an impressive performance.
The young Maltese gymnast completed two composed jumps to rack up a total score of 12.550 that catapulted her at the top of the standings.
St John finished just ahead Iceland’s Rakel Petursdottir (12.525) and Eleana Panagiotou, of Cyprus, who amassed 12.400. Malta’s other representative Julia Galea finished in sixth place on 11.925 points.
15.30 We are back again, as we wait for two important finals.
In Shooting, Gianluca Chetcuti and James Galea are in action in the men’s trap while our women gymnasts are in action in the Gymnastics Artistic.
14.30 47-0! YES, Malta defeated Montenegro 47-0 in the opening match from men’s Rugby Sevens tournament.
14.00 Luke Galea’s first reactions after winning gold to SportsDesk…
13.45 GOLD MEDAL ALERT! Luke Galea defeated Serra Rodrigues of Luxembourg 4-2 to clinch gold in the Karate event.
Malta now moves to six gold medals, 17 in total so far.
13.17 In the 3×3 Basketball, the men’s team fail to emulate their female counterparts as they lose to Andorra 21-16 in the semi-final.
Despite placing third, Malta will not claim a bronze medal since the competition involved only three nations.
13.10 In Karate, Luke Galea just reached the final of Men’s Kumite -84kg!
The Maltese fighter beat Liechtenstein’s Ryan Broder 9-0 and then edged Cypriot Demetris Demetriades 1-0. Galea lost the final lost the final bout against Tiago Serra Rodrigues 3-2 but still progressed after placing second overall.
In the gold medal final, Galea has the chance to take sweet revenge with Serra Rodrigues when they battle for gold.
12.50 The men’s team is coming up shortly as they face Andorra in their semi-final.
12.44 Another medal coming up for sure! The 3×3 Basketball women’s selection dismantled Cyprus 21-12 to reach the gold medal final where they will face Luxembourg later on today.
12.25 Now, we are waiting for the Malta women’s team to take on the court as they face Cyprus in the 3×3 Basketball semi-final. A final showdown with Luxembourg is at stake.
12.10 Bezzina placed fourth with a result of 188.4. The winner, Nevena Saranovic of Montenegro, compiled a mark of 229.2 to secure gold.
11.55 The fight for gold is between Cyprus duo Pratsi and Georgiou and Montenegro’s Saranovic and we are going to have a new winner in the discipline as Bezzina was the defending champion.
11.51 Bezzina hit another big effort of 10.8 to move up into silver medal position one shot remaining on 180.2 points… 2.3 away from gold but just 0.3 above the bronze. But it’s heartbreak for Malta as Bezzina hits a poor shot for just 8.2 and is eliminated as she drops to fourth on 188.4.
11.50 Bezzina lands two big shots of 10.8 that may keep her with an outside chance of pushing herself on the podium. She is just 0.4 from a medal…. with just four shooters remaining. Bezzina must fire big to stay alive as failure to move a place will see her being eliminated.
11.47 Bezzina hits 9.2 points and 8.7 in her next efforts but still not enough to make some ground on her direct rivals as Monaco’s Forest Magali is the next to be eliminated.
11.46 San Marino’s Silvana Parenti is the next to be eliminated and Bezzina is fourth on 129.9 points and still fighting for a place on the podium.
11.45 Bezzina manages 17.7 in the third pair and is up to fourth 0.7 points from a bronze medal position.
11.42 Iceland’s Hardardotti is the first to be eliminated with the lowest score. Bezzina remains fifth but needs to step up to avoid elimination.
11.38 Bezzina stays in fifth place after compiling 47.7 after the second five-shot series for a total of 93.7… 2.1 points away from a place on the podium.
11.33 It’s not been the best of starts for Bezzina after hitting 46 points from the opening five shots to move to fith place in the standings.
Cyprus are leading the way on 50.6 and Montenegro’s Saranovic is second on 49.5. Work to do for Bezzina.
11.20 Competition is under way with the shooter hitting the first five shots.
11.15 There has been a delay in the start of competition as athletes are yet to be presented and start the first part of the final.
11.05 For those not familiar with how the final works, this is a brief description of what is about to happen.
After a five-minute sighting shot period and the presentation of the athletes to the audience, the athletes have 250 seconds to shoot five shots after the command “for the first competition series, load, start”.
The same command is given again for a second five shot series.
After the tenth shot, separate commands are given for each competition shot with a time limit of 50 seconds per shot.
After each two shots, the athlete with the lowest score is eliminated until two shooters are left to compete for the first place in the 23rd and 24th shot.
11.00 The shooters are warming up and we are seconds away from the start of the competition.
10.50 Team Malta is currently fifth in the overall standings with five gold medals, five silver, and six bronze for an overall tally of 16 medals. The Maltese Olympic Committee is targeting nine gold medals and they look well their way to reach that objective.
10.43 Eleonor Bezzina has already booked her place into the 10m Air Pistol final after placing second in the qualifying round.
Bezzina compiled a score of 554 points, seven adrift of leader Saranovic of Montenegro. But the importance of this qualifier for the Maltese shooter was just to secure a top eight position that would earn her a place in the final.
It’s important to point out that the points achieved in the qualifying round will be scratched all shooters will start afresh in their bid to win a medal.
10.40 Competition is already underway and these are the disciplines that are being held on the second day of the 2025 GSSE.
10.30 Good morning and welcome to another day of competition from Andorra. After all the emotions experienced on Tuesday we are hopeful of seeing more medals coming Team Malta’s way in the second day of competition.
The highlight of the day is undoubtedly Eleanor Bezzina’s participation in the 10m air pistol competition, where she is bidding to win a third successive gold medal in these Games, having secured the title in Montenegro in 2019 and the last edition in Malta two years ago.
Note: This coverage is being brought to you by National Lottery.
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