Skopje, Macedonia — Team Malta kicked off the European Youth Olympic Festival with strong performances from flag bearers Thea Parnis Coleiro (Athletics) and Jeremy Gatt (Badminton) on the first day of competition. In athletics, Thea Parnis Coleiro competed in the women’s 100m heats. With a time of 12:06 she successfully progressed to the semi-final round, which took place later in the evening.  Although she clocked a better time in the semi final round – 11:91, this was not enough to see her progress through to the final round. https://youtu.be/kzUoMguWEhE On the badminton court, playing in Group 3  of the Group Play Stage, Jeremy Gatt delivered a determined performance against Slovakia’s Samuel Fodor. After narrowly losing the first set 22-24, Gatt fought back to win the next two sets 21-17, 21-17, securing a hard-fought victory. Later in the evening, Gatt went on to face Denmark’s Maxi Kaufmann.  Denmark, known for its badminton strength, saw Gatt having to contend with an unbeaten Kaufmann. Gatt finished the evening with a 2-0 defeat and placing himself in third place in the Group leaderboard. Jeremy Gatt will be in action again tomorrow, Tuesday 22nd July when he faces Deeptanshu TOKA (NOR) at 1300hrs and  Zisis PEGIOS (GRE) at 1700hrs. All games are being streamed live on https://eoctv.org/live/