James Zahra and Katryna Esposito will not be representing Malta at the Andorra GSSE following a decision taken by the Games technical meeting to scrap the categories where Malta’s top judokas take part in.
In a statement, the Malta Judo Federation said that it deeply regrets this decision that left Team Malta without a judoka in a GSSE contingent for the first time ever.
Esposito won gold for Malta in the 2023 Malta GSSE in the -48kg category while Zahra had secured a silver medal in the same edition in the -60kg class.
Both judokas were expected to be strong medal contenders for Malta in Andorra.
Zahra, ranked 73rd in the world in the -60 kg category, and Esposito, ranked 77th in the -48 kg category, had recently brought pride to Malta by winning gold medals at the European Small Nations Championships in Cyprus last November.