MOC's Psaila predicts strong finale

Malta's chef-de-mission and MOC Director of Sport Pippo Psaila was yesterday brimming with confidence after Double Trap shooter William Chetcuti secured a fourth gold medal for the country in the Andorra GSSE.

Psaila again repeated that the MOC's target of matching the seven gold medals won in San Marino in 2001 was still within reach despite time running out fast. He also went one step further and admitted that he is hoping for no fewer than five gold medals today, the last day of competition.

"We are very satisfied with the performance of our athletes so far," Psaila said.

"All our projections proved correct with most of the athletes we enlisted as potential medal winners delivering the goods.

"But, there's still one day to go. I'm sure we'll win more medals and I would not be surprised if the Maltese athletes secure five titles in different sport on Saturday (today).

"Boris Pasanski has a good chance in the tennis singles final and Makowski and Gerada have an equally good chance of landing gold in table tennis.

"Besides, there are the track and field events. We can do well and add further gold medals in the two 4x100 metres relay and Carol Galea in the 10,000 metres race. If everything goes to plan it will be our best ever performance in a GSSE competition on foreign soil."

"But whatever happens we are very happy with our athletes," Psaila added.

"They showed true professionalism and I think that the whole country should be proud of all our achievements here in Andorra."

Last night, the women's basketball competition came to an end with Iceland being awarded the gold medal after finishing on top of the four-team competition with full points.

Luxembourg finished second in the tournament after they beat Andorra 75-40 in their final match that was played late yesterday.

The result ensured that Malta, gold medal winners in 2003, finished third with four points in the standings, one ahead of the host nation.