Malta’s performance in the Commonwealth games

The 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham is over and all competitors have done their countries proud as this edition of the games breathed major life into the Commonwealth Games as a whole. Many people took up the best betting offers available on the countries such as Australia, England and Canada who finished in the top three of the medals table. 

However, how did Malta perform at these games and did anyone stand out for the nation?

What are the Commonwealth Games?

The Commonwealth Games is an athletic competition where countries that were part of the Commonwealth compete against one another in between the Olympic games. The Commonwealth is more associated with the old British Empire. 

How has Malta done in the past?

Malta first attended the Commonwealth Games in 1958 which was hosted by Cardiff. Since then they have won 6 medals including a silver medal at Melbourne 2006 which was won by Sue Abela and Melissa Anastasi in the ladies bowling doubles.

At the last Commonwealth Games the country won two bronze medals at Gold Coast 2018; must be something about competing in Australia.

The 2022 games

Malta took part in their 14th games and the country did not do as well as last time out but still did the nation proud by bringing home one bronze medal. With the nation smaller than most, it is a massive achievement to make the medal table at all with some countries unable to even pick up a medal.

The winner of this massive achievement was Katryna Esposito. The 21-year-old, who was competing at her first games,  picked up the bronze medal in judo in the -48kg category after she defeated Mauritius judoka Priscilla Morand. She will be hoping to carry on this form into the Olympics in two years' time.

Who else did Malta proud at the games?

The games was a success for other Maltese performers such as Matthew Abela and Sam Cassar in the badminton doubles as they defeated the higher ranked pair from Uganda to proceed to the 2nd round. 

Men’s Squash Doubles Kijan Sultana and Niall Engerer were victorious in their first-round match against the Cayman Islands but came up against a much superior English duo in the next round.

Despite not qualifying for the next round, the Maltese 4x 100m Women’s Relay side did set a national record.  The team composed of Claire Azzopardi, Janet Richard, Carla Scicluna and Charlotte Wingfield clocked a time of 45.59s, beating the previous record of 45.80s.

Part of that team was Charlotte Wingfield who reached the semifinal stage of the 200m event but fell short. 

The games came to a close for Malta with the participation of Aidan Buttigieg in the Men’s Road Race competition. Despite only cycling three years ago, Buttigieg finished 60th out of 127 riders but was less than ten minutes behind the winner after a brutal race in Warwick.

Next Commonwealth Games

Malta will be proud of its performance of the Commonwealth Games and will be hoping to go one better at the next games. However, in between that there are the 2024 Olympics. 

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