Malta’s judo squad, made up of Brent Law, Jeremy Saywell, Patrick Gamble, Joanna Camilleri, Marcon Bezzina, Isaac Bezzina, Francesco Aufieri and Neville Thomas, are currently competing at the Commonwealth Champion-ships in Cardiff. Envic Galea, Lamberto Raffi and Alex Bezzina are in charge of the contingent.

Bezzina recorded Malta’s first win when he beat English judoka Peter Vincent by ippon (full points).

He went on to defeat Scotland’s Liam Dolkin (the 2010 cadet British champion and 2011 British bronze medallist) by ippon in the semi-finals.

Dominic Laing, who won a bronze medal at the British Junior Trials last weekend, was Bezzina’s final opponent.

Bezzina fought bravely till the end but he accumulated two shido and Laing managed to score another yuko to secure the gold medal.

Nevertheless, Bezzina’s silver medal represents a significant feat for himself as well as Maltese judo.

The day didn’t start well for Saywell but he recovered to finish on a high note.

In his first bout, Welsh competitor Connor Ireland surprised Saywell, throwing him for a hip sweep.

Ireland progressed to the last eight but Saywell had the chance for bronze through the repechage. He first eliminated Pierre Hockey, an opponent from Guernsey, with seio nage (drop shoulder throw) and then Austra-lia’s Benny Huynh with his trademark kata guruma (shoulder wheel).

The decisive match for third place was against South Africa’s Shawn Kearney.

Saywell produced another technical move –a ko-uchi gari (minor inner reap) – to win his first medal at the Commonwealths event.

Aufieri is having his first experience at this level.

His first fight in cadets resulted in a very close encounter with Brendan Nel (South Africa). At the end of the bout, none of the competitors had a winning score but the referees eventually awarded victory to Nel.

Aufieri then lost to South Africa’s Christopher Golding in the bronze medal match.

Thomas had been the first Maltese on stage to compete in the veteran category. He went down to Mark Desfountain (South Africa) but was unlucky to lose his second fight to England’s David George.

Coach Raffi said he was pleased with the efforts of his judokas on the opening day of the championships.

“I am very happy with the overall performance of the team,” Raffi said.

“Jeremy (Saywell) is very strong and could have even won the gold medal. Isaac (Bezzina) did very well with his grips and produced a great display.

“Now, we’ll look forward with optimism to the senior categories still to be contested.”