Frans Pace yesterday chalked up Malta's first medal in the GSSE 2005 clay shooting competitions after placing third in a nail-biting Trap competition at the La Rabassa range.

The gold medal was again won by San Marino's Francesco Amici. He totalled 145 from 150 clays. Armand Dousemont, of Luxembourg, was the silver medal winner after a long and nervy shoot-off with Pace. Both had entered the barrage final with the same tally of clays - 121. They finished tied on 140 after a rather poor performance, both hitting 19 in the crucial stage.

For Amici this was his third consecutive GSSE title after he topped the last two competitions in his home country San Marino, in 2001, and Malta two years ago at the Bidnija ranges.

Expectations were very high among the Maltese shooting fraternity at the start of the final. A gold medal was within reach at this stage as Amici was only leading by one clay ahead of Pace, silver medallist in 2003, and Dousemont.

But, unfortunately, Pace, who had only missed four clays in the five qualifying rounds, failed to keep his cool in the barrage.He missed six clays and was forced to contest a shoot-off with Dousemont.

The actual decider was very tense with both shooters hitting the first five clays. In his sixth attempt, Dousemont missed but Pace failed to profit and paid dearly for his error.

In the 13th round Dousemont was again on target but Pace missed to hand the silver medal to the Luxembourg rival.

Incidentally, the final barrage started later than scheduled after some shooters protested with the judges that the launching system was not working adequately. It took officials 15 minutes before they solved the problem.

When approached by the media, Pace said that he was still satisfied with the medal won although he conceded that had he held on to his early form he could have easily finished second.

"It was a highly tense competition for me, especially the shoot-off with Dousemont," Pace said.

"Unfortunately, I failed to keep hold of my nerves and at that stage you cannot afford to lose concentration.

"Still, I'm very satisfied with this result. The level of competition here was again very high. Had I compiled this score in a World Cup shoot I would have finished among the winners.

"But, this medal means a lot to me. It proved that I have finally put behind me a poor patch. Now, I can look ahead with more optimism."

Joe Attard, Malta's other representative in the Trap competition, was just one clay short of a place in the final barrage. He totalled 115 points.

Another shoot-off was needed to decide fourth place. This platonic honour went to Alfio Tomassoni, of San Marino. He beat Cypriot Phidias Savvides on the third clay. They both finished with 137 overall.

The sixth shooter to qualify for the final was Yiannis Ailottis. He finished with 134 after hitting 116 in qualifying.

Vella seventh in air-rifle

William Vella placed seventh overall in the Air-Rifle final held at the Club Andorran de Tir a la Cible.

The gold medal was won by Liechtenstein target shooter Oliver Geissmann with 688.4 points. His compatriot, Mar-Andre Kessler, was second with 683.8 ahead of Luxembourg's Jeff Alliame, on 683.

Vella qualified to the final after placing seventh during competition with 562 points. He finished with 656.3.

In the opening six qualifying rounds, Vella was tied with Steve Decker, of Luxembourg. He also collected 562 points.

Christian Gualandi, of San Marino, failed to make it to the final and Federico Volpini was eighth overall with 653.7 points.