Wrestler Vassallo eliminated in quarter-finals
Borg 10th after two rounds in golf tournament
After William Chetcuti's exploits in the Double Trap competition on Monday, which yielded the Maltese shooter a bronze medal, yesterday it was the turn of wrestler Abraham Vassallo and swimmer Angela Galea to complete their commitments in the 2005 Mediterranean Games in Almeria.
Galea was involved in the heats of the 200m butterfly event at the Las Almadrabillas Sports Centre while Vassallo took part in the 84kg category at the Juercal de Almeria Sports Hall.
Vassallo, 30, reached the quarter-finals in his class but failed to make it to the medals' zone.
He was off to a flier when he won his opening bout against home favourite Ivan Castro Seoane 4-2 to progress to the next round.
In the Last Eight stage he was paired with Raja Al-karrad. The Syrian, however, proved too strong for Vassallo who succumbed to a 9-1 defeat.
Al-karrad was then eliminated in the semi-finals by Lazaros Loizidis, of Greece, 4-1.
For the third time this week, Galea failed to make it past the qualifying phase. In yesterday's second 200m 'fly heat she had to settle for a sixth placing with a time of 2:20.46.
The Maltese swimmer was 10th overall with Spain's Mireia Garcia moving to the final with the fastest timing of the qualifiers in 2:11.72.
The race was won by Catherina Giacchetti, of Italy, in 2:10.01.
The time registered by Galea yesterday is outside her national record of 2:19.67, set in June 2003, but faster than the one she had on her way to winning the event in Andorra in 2:21.99.
In the GSSE final, Galea had finished ahead of San Marino's Simona Muccioli. The latter was also in the same heat with Galea yesterday. Muccioli finished last with a time of 2:24.27.
In golf, Andrew Borg is currently sharing 10th place with Libya's Akl Rachid after the first two rounds of the men's individual 72-hole tournament.
Borg finished the day with six over par, the same score he achieved in the opening round on Monday, for an overall scoring of 12 over par - 156.
The tournament resumes today with Spain's Ignacio Sanchez topping the charts with a good score of one under par (143). The competition comes to a close tomorrow.
On Monday night, the Malta U-21 team failed to progress to the quarter-finals of the football tournament after suffering a comprehensive 5-0 defeat to Turkey at the El Ejido Stadium.
After a goalless first half, the Turks managed to breach Malta's resistance scoring five times through Kaya Doga, Can Aksu Cafer (2), Arda Turam and Muhammet Reis to win Group B ahead of Spain.
Silvio Vella's team finished bottom of the table with no points from two matches and with the worst record from all nine participating teams.
Our team was the only one eliminated from the competition.
Vella started with the following formation - A. Hogg, A. Muscat, S. Bezzina, J. Mifsud, D. Camenzuli, C. Failla, P. Fenech, D. Falzon, M. Bartolo, R. Fenech, A. Scerri. Joel Sammut Vasquez and Kenneth Spiteri came on as substitutes.
The football tournament resumes this evening when the four quarter-finals will be played. Turkey face Greece, Libya take on Tunisia, Morocco were paired with Algeria while hosts Spain play gold medal favourites Italy.
The final is scheduled for Sunday at the Mediterranean Games stadium.
Chouhal withdraws from triple jump
Athletics get underway this morning with Mario Bonello being our only representative on the track for the day.
Bonello will be on the starting blocks for the semi-finals of the 200 metres race.
Rashid Chouhal was also scheduled to be in action today when he was due to take part in the triple jump.
However, the Morocco-born sprinter, who won a silver medal in the same discipline in Andorra with a leap of 14.57 metres, has decided to pull out of the event.
Chouhal will now be focusing his preparations on the long jump and the 4x100 metres relay.
Judoka Marcon Bezzina, a gold medal winner in the Andorra GSSE, will also be making her Mediterranean Games 2005 debut today.
At the Rafael Florido Sports Hall, she steps on the tatami to compete in the 57kgs category.