The curtain falls on Cyprus's participation at the 20th Mediterranean Games in Taranto on Wednesday, with 17 athletes competing in four sports as the island's delegation seeks a strong finish to the competition.
The Cyprus Olympic Committee, represented by 145 athletes in 24 sports, will complete its campaign through competitions in gymnastics, sailing, karate and athletics.
Gymnastics offers best medal opportunities
The main focus of the final day will be the men's artistic gymnastics apparatus finals, where Cypriot gymnasts have secured six places across four finals.
Marios Georgiou is expected to spearhead Cyprus's medal challenge, competing in:
- Rings
- Parallel Bars
- Horizontal Bar
In the Rings final, Georgiou and Sokratis Pilakouris will both target podium finishes after qualifying seventh and fourth respectively.
During the evening session, Neophytos Kyriakou will compete in the Vault final after qualifying fifth.
Georgiou will then return for the Parallel Bars final, where he qualified eighth but is considered capable of climbing significantly higher based on the difficulty of his routine.
The final event of the night will be the Horizontal Bar final, where Georgiou, who qualified first, is considered one of the favourites for gold alongside Turkey's Mert Efe Kilicer.
Kyriakou also qualified for the Horizontal Bar final in eighth place.
Athletes complete track and field campaign
Cyprus will have five athletes competing in athletics finals.
Christos Tamanis and Dimitris Christofi will compete in the Pole Vault final against a field of nine athletes. Both will be aiming to improve on their season-best mark of 5.35m.
In the Triple Jump final, Grigoris Nikolaou and Andranik Sarkis Astjian will seek personal-best performances.
Nikolaou's season-best of 16.36m could place him in contention for a medal, while Algeria's Yasser Mohammed Ta Triki, with a season-best of 17.67m, enters the event as the overwhelming favourite.
The athletics programme will conclude with 17-year-old Marina Chatzikosta competing in the women's Discus final, where she enters with the eighth-best season mark among the nine finalists at 56.54m.
Karate team seeks a final medal
Three athletes will complete Cyprus's karate programme.
In the men's -84kg kumite, Loizos Vasileiou will face Lebanon's M.A. Mohamed Abudabous in the round of 16.
Alexandros Michail will then compete in the men's +84kg kumite against Anes Bostandzic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the women's +68kg kumite, Theodosia Yakoumi begins her campaign at the quarter-final stage.
Final races in sailing
The sailing programme also concludes on Wednesday.
In the ILCA6 category, Andriani Georgiou remains within reach of the medals but will require an outstanding final race combined with favourable results elsewhere.
Marilena Makri will also compete in the final ILCA6 race, while Emilios Poeros and Errikos Karatzis race in the men's ILCA7 category.
In iQFoil, Natasa Lappa will seek to improve her position through the final series of races after weather conditions forced postponements on the previous day.
Iakovos Christofidis will also complete his campaign in the men's iQFoil competition.
The Cyprus Olympic Committee said the delegation will continue targeting the best possible results until the final event of the Games.
