The Malta Bowling Association won a second medal at the European Youth Championships after the boys’ selection secured a bronze in the teams’ competition.
After Nicolai Mallia’s bronze in the singles at the start of the week, the boys team made up of Nicolai Mallia, Tomas Caruso, Travis Barbara and Kayden Lagana, lead by national coach Mark Spiteri, produced a strong performance in the team event to secure its place on the podium.
The Maltese youth selection qualified in first place to make it into the semi-finals.
The Maltese bowlers started the games with a whopping 930 total but then slowed down to 749 and 676 in games 2 and 3 on day 1 of the team event, to finish in seventh place.
The team came out fully concentrated on day 2 and shot superb games of 848, 842 and 853 to end up with 4,898 just three pins ahead of Denmark (4895), followed by Germany on 4,878 and Turkey on 4,839.
Malta went on to face Turkey in the semi-finals, and both teams put up a strong fight till the end.
The home team managed to draw on the very vociferous support of their numerous supporters to eventually win 846-803. Thus, Malta had to settle with a bronze medal.
Turkey went on to face Germany who had defeated Denmark in the other semi-final, with Germany ending as European champions.
Nicolai and Kayden, who finished 7th and 16th in the all events respectively, will now bowl in the Masters on Sunday.