Katryna Esposito won Malta’s first medal at the Commonwealth Games when she won a bronze medal in the -48kg category on Monday.
Esposito had the better of Mauritius judoka Priscilla Morand to place third in her category.
It was a marvellous result for the 21-year-old who is making her first appearance in the Commonwealth Games.
Watch the moment Katryna Esposito won the bronze medal for Malta
Esposito took to the mat on Monday morning when she competed in the -48kg event against England’s Amy Platten.
Taking playing on home soil to her advantage, Platten had the better of Esposito winning the match by ippon for a final score of 10-0.
Not to be deterred, Esposito gave a strong performance in the repechage contest beating Wales judoka Ashleigh Anne Barnikel, also to an ippon in match that lasted 2 minutes 35 seconds.
Next up for Esposito was a clash against Morand.
Here, the Maltese judoka showed great discipline to fend off the challenge of Morand who picked up two yellow cards during the contest before it was decided by a golden score.
Here, Morand picked up a third yellow card to hand the victory to Esposito.
Katryna Esposito defeats Ashleigh-Anned Barnikel, of Wales.
Meanwhile, in the NEC Arena, weightlifter Yazmin Zammit Stevens, who was making her second appearance in the Commonwealth Games, competed in the women’s 64kg category.
Finishing in sixth place amongst a pool of 12 athletes, Zammit Stevens lifted 83 kilogrammes in the snatch event, having failed the first attempt of 81kgs.
In the clean and jerk event, Zammit Stevens lifted a total of 103 kilogrammes, having failed the first attempt of 103 kilogrammes.
Zammit Stevens garnered a total of 186 kilogrammes.
The event was won by Canadian lifter Maude Charron.
With 101kg in the snatch and 130kg in the Clean and Jerk events, Charron garnered a total of 231 kilograms registering a Games Record in the process.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Malta will be competing in the track and field events.
Here, Carla Scicluna will be taking part in the 100m heats.
Lawn bowlers will also get back in to action when they compete in the Women’s Pairs and Men’s Four events.
The men’s lawn bowlers will try to make up for Sunday’s disappointment in the triples event when they missed out on a place in the semi-final after a heart-breaking defeat to Fiji.
In fact, Peter John Ellul, Troy Lorimer and Shaun Parnis on Sunday played a close game against Fiji with no clear winner being evident throughout the game.
With scores being constantly changed, Malta went into the lead 12-10, but a reaction from Fiji towards the end meant that the game changed, and Fiji emerged winners with a narrow score of 15-14.
