The curtain of the II Mediterranean Beach Games dropped tonight with Greece dominating the medal tally, finishing first in the overall ranking.
The host country sits proudly on top of the medal ranking list after the completion of the event having won a total of 46 medals, 19 of which are gold, 16 are silver and 11 are bronze.
Of the 26 countries that took part in the Games, 13 won medals.
Italy finished second with a totyal of 39 (15 gold -13 silver-11 bronze) and France third with 32 (13-7-12).
They were followed by (ranking based on number of gold medals won): Spain – 18 (6-5-7), Portugal with 6 (1-5-0), Turkey with 4 (1-0-3), Albania with 1 (1-0-0), Tunisia 6 (0-4-2), Croatia 5 (0-3-2), Syria 3 (0-1-2), Cyprus 2 ( 0-1-1), Monaco 2 (0-0-2) and San Marino 1 (0-0-1).
Greece won medals in seven of the program’s 11 sports. Athletes in the Aquathlon, Canoe Ocean Racing, Beach Soccer and Beach Tennis events did not manage to step on the podium.
Finswimming had the lion’s share of the medals, with 23 in total (12 gold, 10 silver, 1 bronze), followed by Beach Wrestling with 9 (2-4-3), Water Skiing with 6 (2-0-4) , Rowing Beach Sprint with 3 (1-2-0), Beach Handball with 2 (2-0-0), Open Water Swimming with 2 (0-0-2) and Beach Volleyball with 1 (0-0-1).
At an individual level most of the medals were won by two members of the Finswimming team: Sofia KTENA and Nikolaos PIPINIAS (four in total) with two gold and two silver.
Four years ago in Pescara, the host country, Italy, had again dominated the first Mediterranean Beach Games.
Italy then tallied 70 medals, 33 of which were gold, 23 silver and 14 bronze. France was second with 27 (13-5-9) and Greece third with 21 (5-7-9).
Algeria were fourth with 19 (2-4-4), Egypt fifth with 11(1-6-4) and Tunisia sixth with 12 (1-4-7).
The criterion in the ranking of countries in sports events is the number of gold medals they have won.