William Vella handed the country its first medal of the 2015 Games of the Small States of Europe when placing third in the air-rifle competition at the IRF Sports Hall in Reykjavik, yesterday.

The 30-year-old amassed a combined score of 174.2 points to finish behind Liechtenstein marksmen Marc Andre Kessler, who claimed the first gold medal of the Games with 198.8 points, and Michael Mattle, the silver medallist with 197.9 points.

Gianluca Azzopardi Spiteri, 17, held his own on his debut when he placed fourth with a 149.9 score.

“I’m really happy to be back and finish among the medal winners in the GSSE after so many years out of the sport,” Vella, who has only returned to the shooting range a few months ago after a lengthy lay-off, told Times of Malta.

“This was my first serious competition in the last four years and I’m glad to have made the podium.

“I know that I can perform better but this result is a motivation and a signal to kick on from here. Hopefully, in two years time I can challenge for the gold medal.”

With the entry list matching the number of shooters needed for the final – eight – the morning preliminary round served as a warm-up for the final later in the afternoon.

The medal contenders were allowed 75 minutes to complete 60 shots in the preliminary round.

Vella looked tense at first but felt more at ease as the competition went along and compiled 600.5 that put him just 3.8 points short of competition favourite Kessler who topped the scoreboard with 604.3.

Mattle was third on 594.8 and Azzopardi fifth with a combined score of 582.6.

Vella’s bright showing in the opening round lifted expectations among the MOC officials who hoped he could challenge for the medals and after the first five rounds of the final he was leading the provisional table.

However, a poor seventh round score saw him drift out of contention for the top two positions and ultimately he had to settle for third place.

Kessler trailed Mattle going into the final three shots. But a below-par score of 7.6 saw the initiative swing back to Kessler who kept his cool to clinch a third successive gold medal in GSSE air-rifle.

Formosa in final

In the women’s air-rifle, Alison Formosa progressed to the final after compiling 395.3 points in the qualifying round to finish fifth from 10 shooters.

Formosa, however, found the going tough in the finals as she was the first to be eliminated when only managing a score of 76.

Iris Einarsdottir handed hosts Iceland their first gold medal of the Games when topping the charts with 200.1. Luxembourg’s Carole Calmes was second, 196.7, and Marilena Constantinou took bronze with 176.8 points.

Maltese in action today...

­Artistic Gymnastics
Claire Azzopardi, Suzanne Buttigieg, Kirsty Caruana, Peppijna Dalli, Sana Grillo (apparatus final)

Basketball (women)
Malta vs Luxembourg

Beach volley (women)
Liechtenstein vs Malta

Golf
Andy Borg, John Junior Ver Elst Micallef, Daniel Holland.

Shooting
Eleonor Bezzina (air pistol)

Swimming
Andrew Chetcuti, Julian Harding (100 metres butterfly)
Michael Umnov (200 metres breaststroke)

Table tennis
Victoria Luchenkova, Jessica Pace (teams tournament semi-final matches)

Tennis
Elaine Genovese, Katrina Sammut (singles QFs, doubles SF)
Matthew Asciak (last 16 singles)
Matthew Asciak, Elaine Genovese (mixed doubles SF)