MTFSA I.Open (indiv.) & Grand Prix (Teams) January 2008 |

International Open & Grand Prix

Derek Conti Wins the Malta I.Open

A total of 44 players took part to January’s International event organized by the MTFSA. In the Open event, 24 local players and 5 players from Italy took part, while 15 other players were involved in categories of U/19, U/15 and veterans.

On Sunday, the individual competitions took place. Nine groups were set from which only the first two qualified to the next round. After the barrage, the last 16 played each other where Charles Aquilina bet Stefan Pace 2-1 and Mark Gauci bet Ilai Zammit 4-0 being the most important results at this stage. In the quarter finals, Derek Conti had the better of Hansel Mallia with a tight 2-1, Joe Mifsud bet Kenneth Attard 2-1, Mark Gauci won a thriller 3-2 against Samuel Bartolo in extra time and Aquilina won over Massimo Cremona 3-0. In semifinals, Derek Conti won a very close match over Joe Mifsud 1-0 while the match between Aquilina and Gauci had to be decided on shoot outs in which Aquilina won by just a single goal 4-3.

In the final between Conti and Aquilina, with game approaching to extra time, Derek managed a late strike which left Aquilina without possibility of an equalizer to obtain his second consecutive tournament win this season.

In the U/19, Nicholas Sciberras had an easy win in the semi final against Darren Gareth, while Timothy Spiteri had to battle against Italian Pierpaolo Sillano to obtain a final. Sciberras won the final match 2-1 and broke the U/19 dominance from Spiteri. In the U/15, three groups were set and the competition took its highest in the semis. Adam Gatt lost against U/12 World Champion Matthew Pace 2-1 while Angelo Borg comfortably bet Darren Bezzina 3-1. In the final, Angelo Borg took the lead and doubled in the second half to win this category in style 2-0 against the World Champion. In the Veterans, Patrick Pace continued his complete dominance and bet Natalino Tanti 3-0 in the final to obtain another victory in this category.

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Hamrun Spartans Table Football Club win the Malta Grand Prix for teams

On Saturday, five teams participated to the Malta Grand Prix for teams for which three teams from Hamrun, Valletta SC and AS Cosenza from Italy played a one group competition. After the recent participation to the Champions League held in Greece, Hamrun Spartans TFC had the better of the other participants. Hamrun Spartans TFC won their first two games against Valletta SC and AS Cosenza 3-0 and 3-1 respectively and went ahead of the group. Thus, the consequent two matches were just a formality for the reds which ended this competition unbeaten winning their first International title. The second team of Hamrun Spartans TFC took the second place.

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The Malta International Open (indiv.)

& Grand Prix (teams) -26 & 27 January 2008

The MTFSA will be hosting the Grand Prix for teams on Saturday 26th January. While the International Open for Individuals will be held on Sunday.

After last year's experience, the MTFSA decided to organise the G.Prix for teams on a separate date considering the fact that the organisation had to end up in the late hours.

All those interested are to send their application to the MTFSA sports director Mr Mario Camilleri on marcamfire@gmial.com or the President, Mr Joe Zammit Pavia on jzpavia@onvol.net

This event will be played at the VICTOR TEDESCO STADIUM the home gound of Hamrun Spartans Football Club