Vella straight earns Malta first Skeet medal
A superb straight in the barrage saw Paul Vella earning a Skeet silver medal yesterday, the first for Malta in GSSE competition. The result also capped a wonderful week for the Bidnija ranges fraternity, who have thus recorded their best performance in...
A superb straight in the barrage saw Paul Vella earning a Skeet silver medal yesterday, the first for Malta in GSSE competition. The result also capped a wonderful week for the Bidnija ranges fraternity, who have thus recorded their best performance in the Games with one gold, two silver and a bronze.
Vella finished two clays short of Cypriot Antonis Nicolaides, who won gold with 144. George Achilleos, also of Cyprus, settled for bronze with 141. Malta's other Skeet shooter, Silvio Attard, was fifth with 137.
Before the barrage, Vella was joint third with world no. 2 Achilleos, hitting 117 clays, one short of runner-up Petur Gunnarson, of Iceland, and three off Nicolaides.
In the last four GSSE, Vella had always missed out on a medal by a whisker. Gunnarson was the first to wilt as he missed five clays in the final as Vella smashed them all to win silver.
"I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. For four successive GSSE I always missed out on a place on the podium by a clay or two. Today I had no intention of losing a medal, especially here on home territory," Vella said.
National coach Francesco Castellani never doubted Vella's talent, even though he admitted his expectations were for a bronze and not a silver medal.
"Paul was fantastic today," he said. "With some of the world's best shooters in the barrage, I thought he could only aspire for bronze. In Skeet the level is so high that a shooter can lose out on a medal with only one miss. Today Paul profited from the mistakes of his rivals and deservedly won a medal," Castellani said.
Shooting Federation president Saviour Portelli said yesterday's result was the completion of a dream for his organisation which has been working hard for the past decade for such success.
"Vella's medal rewards the hard work put in by the shooter and the federation. We have never been so successful in these Games before. Now, we have to seek to invest more in our shooters. I'm sure the MOC and the government will continue to support our sport," Portelli said.