Gerada brothers land silver

Brothers Simon and Wayne Gerada yesterday claimed a silver medal at the Gozo Sports Complex after a second placing in the doubles, an event which was contested by seven GSSE countries.

The Maltese/Australian duo forfeited only one match from six when they lost to eventual gold medalists Iceland who had Stephenson and Arnason in the team. Cyprus took bronze with four wins and two losses. Iceland won all their six matches. The Icelanders beat Malta 3-1. Today, Stephenson joins Simon Gerada in the singles semi-finals line-up. If they win their respective ties, they could contest the singles gold medal between them.

In the other matches yesterday, Malta had the better of Luxembourg (3-0), San Marino (3-0), Liechtenstein (3-1), Cyprus (3-0) and Andorra (3-0).

The silver medal was the only one obtained so far at the Victoria venue by the hosts. Earlier in the week, Malta's two national sides were eliminated from the teams' tournament in the group stages.

Simon Gerada, however, is already sure of another medal in table tennis competitions as his placing in the last four of the singles events, automatically earns him a bronze.

Meanwhile, the women's participation in table-tennis competitions came to a sad close yesterday. Johanna Grech and Christine Cassar Torreggiani never got going in the doubles tournament. They finished without a win in a competition which saw the participation of four other teams.

Malta lost against San Marino 3-0, Iceland 3-0, Luxembourg 3-0 and Cyprus 3-1. San Marino's Yan Chimei and G. Anpilova were unbeaten to win gold ahead of the Luxembourg pair and that of Cyprus. In San Marino, two years ago, Malta were bronze medal winners in the doubles.