Watch: Women’s doubles storm to gold medal, men’s pairing settle with bronze medal

Team Malta maintained their medal success in table tennis at the GSSE when securing a gold medal in the women’s doubles while their male counterparts had to settle with a bronze.

Maria-Carmelia Iacob and Renata Strbikova produced a stellar performance in the women’s event as they sailed into the semi-finals with a perfect record as they beat Cyprus 3-1 and then whitewashed Iceland 3-0.

In the semi-finals, Iacob and Strbikova upset gold medal favourites Luxembourg to set up a final showdown with Cyprus.

The Maltese pair here were relentless as they cruised to a 3-0 to secure the gold medal.

“It was a very consistent performance from our girls,” coach Viktoria Luchenkova told the Times of Malta. “They had already beaten Cyprus in the group stages, but their performance of the day came in the semis when they beat strong favourites Luxembourg, who featured Sarah de Nutte, a former world championship bronze medallist in doubles.

“Once in the final they played in the final with confidence and fully deserved to be champions.”

In the men’s tournament, Dmitri Prokopcov and Felix Wetzel looked a solid bet to reach the final after strolling to top spot in their group with a 3-1 win over Cyprus and identical 3-0 wins over Andorra and Monaco.

But in the semi-finals, Wetzel and Prokopcov threw away a two-set lead to lose the match 3-2 and settle for bronze.

“It was a tough defeat to take against Luxembourg as they had the opportunity to close out the match in the fifth set when they had a match point, and from then on the match turned in favour of Luxembourg, who reached the final,” Luchenkova said.

“Now they have the chance to redeem themselves in the singles that kick off on Wednesday.”

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