The Spanish delegation present at the Mediterranean Games that are being disputed in the Algerian town of Oran added a new medal with the silver in badminton for the couple formed by the Aragonese Pablo Abián and Luis Enrique Penalver while he also secured one more metal with the final achieved in a fight by Levan Metrevelli.
Spain added its third medal in the event after the bronzes of the karate fighter Alba Pinilla and the artistic gymnastics team, made up of Alba Petisco, Maia Llacer, Claudia Villalba, Emma Fernandez, Laura Casabuena and Lorena Medinathanks to the veteran Abián and Peñalver in the doubles modality of the badminton competition.
The Olympian from Bilbilita and Toledo got into the fight for gold after beating the Italians Fabio Caponio and Giovanni Toti (17-21, 21-15 and 21-19) in a disputed semifinal match and then They brushed the gold medal, but could not finally overcome the Algerian couple formed by Koceila Mammeri and Youcef Sabri Medel, but these, driven by the public, came back to prevail by 14-21, 21-19 and 21-16.
This silver is the third medal in the Mediterranean Games for Pablo Abián, who won individual gold four years ago in Tarragona, and another individual silver in the Turkish town of Mersin in 2013, while Kike Peñalver opens his record.
In addition, the one from Calatayud began his defense of the Games crown in the individual competition on Tuesday with a victory over the Frenchman Gregoire Descham in two sets (21-16 and 21-13), thus achieving the ticket for the quarterfinals end. In this round he will face the Portuguese Francisco Marreiros.
In addition, the Spanish team secured another medal on this second day of competition, although it remains to be seen what the color will be, thanks to the performance in the free form of the fight of Levan Metreveli, who will fight for gold this Tuesday in the 57-kilo category. On the other hand, in Greco-Roman, Marcos Sánchez could not overcome the repechage and did not agree to the fight for the podium.
Spain also had options to increase its medal table in Oran in the table tennis, but fell in the fight for bronze against Greece (3-1). In the quarterfinals they beat Italy (3-2), but in the semifinals they could not clearly beat Slovenia (0-3). In artistic gymnastics, the men’s team made up of Néstor Abad, Joel Plata, Nicolau Mir, Thierno Boubacar Diallo, Jorge Rubio and Joshua Jack Williams could not emulate the women’s team and finished in fourth position, one point off the podium.
In petanque there was also good news with the classification for the semifinals of Jesús Escacho in the shooting mode, joining in this penultimate step towards the medals Sara Díaz and the couple that she forms with Melani Homar.
Finally, in team sports, andvolleyball gave two joys with the male and female teams who added two authoritarian victories against Tunisia (25-17, 25-17 and 25-22) and Algeria (25-23, 29-27 and 25-18).
