Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/827430
22 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 24 MAY 2017 Sport DARTS - XVII MEDITERRANEAN CUP Two silver and one bronze medal for Team Malta THE 17th edition of the Medi- terranean darts cup staged in Poissy, France came to an end on Saturday with Team Malta claiming three medals in total – Silver in the Team and Singles event and Bronze in the Overall. The national team composed of four players: Norbert Attard, David Attard, Godfrey Abela and John Agius kicked off their International commitments on Thursday in the Team Event. In the opening group match, Malta suffered a 7-9 defeat to Romania but two exceptional performances against Greece 9-6 and Cyprus 9-4 in the re- maining group matches saw the Maltese team qualify for knock- out stage. Day two featured matches from the singles & pairs compe- tition with John Agius stealing the show reaching the semi-fi- nal stage in the individual com- petition defeating E.Pantelidis (Greece) 4-0; R.Negot (ROU) 4-1; D.Carrasco (Catalonia) 4-3 along the way. Norbert and Da- vid Attard were eliminated at the last 16 stage with Godfrey Abela a round earlier. In the af- ternoon, the pairs competition took place with both Maltese pairs failing to reach the semi- finals. Day three can only be de- scribed as a roller coaster ride for the Maltese contingent with many ups and downs along the way. First up was John Agius with another brilliant perfor- mance as he defeated A.Frim of Romania 4-1 in the singles event to reach the final in this com- petition. Next up, Team Malta in what ended up to be the best performance of the entire tournament in their semi-final against host nations France. In a first to nine leg match, the Mal- tese team found themselves 8-4 down but a spirited comeback saw the Maltese team win all the remaining five legs to claim a 9-8 victory and a berth in the final. After an afternoon`s rest, first up was John Agius in the singles final against local boy Jacques Labre. Leading 3-1 in a first to four legs, Agius could not get over the winning line with Labre claiming the gold medal in a 4-3 victory. The fi- nal match on schedule was the Team event with Malta facing off against Romania for the second time in this competi- tion. Unfortunately, this time the Maltese were on the wrong end of a comeback as Romania managed to claim gold in a 9-7 win despite trailing the Maltese 7-4 at one stage. Andre Zammit (public rela- tions officer) quoted: "At first there is obviously a slight dis- appointment of losing two fi- nals from a winning position but overall another successful International appointment for our National team, especially considering that two out of the four players representing Malta where making their debut at this event – John Agius & Da- vid Attard". XVII Mediterranean Cup - Roll of Honour: Men`s overall – 1st France 58 points; 2nd Romania 46 points; 3rd MALTA 38 points; 4th Turkey 26 points; 5th Catalo- nia 20 points; 6th Gibraltar 18 points; 7th Cyprus 14 points; 8th Greece 12 points. Men`s team – 1st Romania; 2nd MALTA; 3rd France & Catalonia. Men`s singles – 1st J.Labre (FRA); 2nd J.Agius (MLT); 3rd A.Frim (ROU) & K.Pantelidis (GRE). Men`s pairs – 1st France; 2nd Gibraltar; 3rd Turkey & Roma- nia. Ladies overall – 1st Catalonia & Greece A 18 points; 3rd Tur- key A 14 points; 4th France A 12 points; 5th Turkey B & France B 6 points; 7th Greece B 4 points; 8th Romania 0 points. David Attard