Malta finish seventh overall at Small Nations Games

Malta won two golds, 10 silver and 14 bronze medals in Small Nations' Games held in Luxembourg this week.

Malta's tally meant that it finished seventh in the overall standings with only Andorra and San Marino faring worse.

Malta won a silver and five bronze medals on the final day of games, however failed to win a gold medal in the track and field events, basketball and beach volley.

This year's medal tally is modest in comparison with the last edition of the Games of the Small States of Europe held in Leinchestein in 2011, when Malta had won eight gold medals to finish fourth in the overall standings.

The GSSE is a biennial games featuring the National Olympic Committees of eight European small states.

In the final day, Rebecca Sare won a silver medal in the triple jump when she managed a leap of 12.08m. Andy Grech set a new national record and won the bronze medal.

In the women's 5,000 final, Giselle Camilleri won her second bronze medal of the games.

The men's 4x100 relay team of Rachid Chouhal, Andy Grech, Steve Camilleri and Luke Bezzina brought home the bronze medal. Malta were temporally promoted to second place when Iceland were disqualified, but after a protest,

Iceland were reinstated and Malta were back to third place.

In the men's 4x400 event, Steve Camilleri, Matthew Crocker, Neil Brimmer and Kevin Moore placed third.

In the women's 4x400 event, Francesca Borg, Nicole Gatt, Janet Richard and Lara Scerri also placed third.

Malta finished last in the basketball event after they were defeated by Cyprus 59-48 in a four team tournament.

In Beach Volley, Allison Borg and Gertrude Zarb were defeated 2-1 by Liechtenstein in the bronze medal play-off.