NEWS

Birkirkara players honour Malta in Mediterranean Games
26th October 2011
A group of Birkirkara players were selected by Badminton Malta to participate in the 2011 Mediterranean Games that were held in Siracusa. The team was more or less composed of last year's players, with the exception of Samuel Cali who replaced Robert Salomone who could not make it for the tournament. This was Cali's first international experience, and in particular, the first time he wore the Maltese colours.

The match against the Sicilian selection kicked off with the Ladies' Doubles. Maria Borg and Fiorella Sadowski seemed to succumb to the pressure and made too many unforced errors to give in to rivals Mirella Militello / Annalisa Calandra 21-13, 21-18.

Next on the scene were Stefan Salomone and Samuel Cali who played Filippo Speciale and Giuseppe Lipari. The match was very exciting with both pairs playing some wonderful badminton. But the Maltese duo emerged on top winning the game in 2 straight sets 21-15, 21-18 to restore parity.

Maria put Team Malta ahead when she won her singles match against Militello. Once again, the pressure had the best over Maria Borg in the initial part of the first set. But the Maltese player fought courageously and slowly started to close off the gap separating her from her rival. After managing to cancel out 4 Militello's setpoints, Maria grew confidence in her gameplay and grasped the first set 24-22. She then moved on to demonstrate her superiority over the Sicilian player winning the second set 21-14.

With the score now at 2-1, Malta only needed another win to make the match their own. Stefan seemed determined to grasp that win and bagged the first set comfortably against Filippo Speciale 21-8. However, Speciale reacted and managed to squeeze through the second set 21-19. In the deciding game, Stefan started off slowly and made too many mistakes conceding a 9-0 lead to his opponent. The Maltese player tried his best to close the gap but Speciale was able to maintain a safe distance and to win the game 21-9 to level the overall score.

The Mixed Doubles had to decide the winner of the competition. Initially the match seemed to be heading to a defeat after the Sicilian pair, Lipari/Calandra, had the better over Samuel and Fiorella in the first set 21-17. But the latter were determined to turn the matters to their favour and with a heroic performance took the game in their hands winning the remaining two sets with an identical score of 21-16 to snatch the gold medal.

During their stay the players also played a friendly against Siracusa Badminton Club and won 3-0, with Fiorella (singles), Samuel (singles) and Stefan/Maria (mixed) winning their games.

This was a fitting success for our club, for Malta, but mostly for the sport of badminton on our island. In fact, the Badminton Team was complimented by the Malta Olympic Committee who defined badminton as "a pleasant surprise" in a press conference held after the competition.

Our congratulations go to the coach Martin Farrugia, who prepared the players for this event, and to all the players; but special mention goes to Samuel who won both his matches on his debut with the senior team.

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