Watch: Luke Galea strikes gold in kumite as Denysov awarded bronze in Andorra

Luke Galea won a gold medal on his debut at the Games of the Small States of Europe when he won the -84kg division in kumite.

Galea, in his first appearance in the Games of the Small States of Europe, showed a lot of maturity throughout the tournament to rubberstamp his authority and hand the Malta Karate Federation its second gold medal of the Games.

The Mġarr native opened the competition with a  9-0 win over Ryan Broder, of Liechtenstein and then edged past Cypriot Demetris Demtriades 1-0.

In his final group match, Galea lost  Tiago Serra Rodrigues 3-2 but still progressed after placing second overall.

In the gold medal final, Galea had the chance to take sweet revenge against the Luxembourg athlete Serra Rodrigues when they battled for gold.

And the talented karate athlete duly delivered.

The bout saw Serra Rodrigues take early control when surging into a 2-1 lead with less than a minute to go.

But Vella kept his poise and launched a series of attacks that earned him three successive points to take a dramatic 4-2 victory and secure the gold medal.

“I am really satisfied with this result,” a beaming Vella told the Times of Malta.

“I worked hard during the past two years to arrive for these Games in the best shape possible. It was not easy, as I had to recover from an injury, but with the help of my father and Josef Antonelli, I was able to come here and compete at my absolute best.

“It’s a great result for our sport, and I would like to thank everyone for their support so I could get this result.”

On his part, Antonelli, who has been working with Luke Galea for several years, was so proud of the efforts of his protégé.

“I am so proud of Luke,” Antonelli said.

“We have been working together for nine years and the last 24 months we have been preparing in the best possible way to get the best possible result. And he duly delivered as he won the gold medal, and he should be so proud of himself.”

Malta were awarded a medal 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.

Dimitar Petrov was Malta’s other participant in the men’s competitions, but he failed to reach the final stages of the men’s kata.

In the female competitions, Emma Mizzi was in action in the -61kg category.

The young Maltese athlete won one and lost three bouts in the qualifying stages, but failed to progress into semi-finals.

On the other hand, Amy Cunningham beat Magali Faggio 8-0 but then suffered defeats to Pola Giorgetti, of Luxembourg and Stella Sprenger, of Liechtenstein and missed out on a medal.

“The success is the result of months of intensive physical and technical preparation by the elite karate athletes as planned by the Malta Karate Federation national coaches Michelle Vella, Josef Antonelli and Joseph Mizzi together with me,” MKF technical director Jesmond Schembri told the Times of Malta.

“Athletes and coaches took part in high-level training seminars and international competitions such as the World and the European Karate Championships to improve their technical qualities.

“The Malta Karate Federation, the Maltese Olympic Committee and SportMalta were instrumental in giving the necessary support and resources to make this possible.

“The future looks very positive for local karate and the Malta Karate Federation as more successes are expected in upcoming competitions.”

Note: This coverage is brought to you by National Lottery.