Play was halted during the men’s pool A match when Slovenia led Spain 8-4 and, after a delay of almost an hour, officials announced that play had been suspended until 6pm to allow repairs to be conducted.

Spectators were told that their tickets would be valid for the evening session of competition. 

The work to repair the court, however, took longer than expected to complete.

Town Hall technicians and the installation company recommended that play be completely abandoned for the day.

"The most important thing is the safety of the athletes," International Committee for the Mediterranean Games President Amar Addadi told insidethegames. 

"Organisers have now rescheduled the remainder of the competition."

Along with the resumption of the Slovenia versus Spain match, five further matches in tme morning session will have to be rescheduled.

Earlier it had been going so well.

It had fallen to Slovenia and Greece to carve out a little piece of history.

The sport had been included in these Games for the first time and the Slovenes won 21-16 in the first 3x3 contest in the men’s competition.

The natural amphitheatre high above the city made a wonderful setting and the organisers brought in a bus load of children. 

The school holidays have already begun here and they created the atmosphere that has so often been missing from these Games, mind you, the arrival of mascot Tarracus did rather mean that events on court were briefly forgotten. 

The youngsters were cheering for Andorra’s men in their against Serbia. 

It seemed a monumental mismatch and so it proved.

"There are many disciplines like volleyball which was indoor and now they have beach volleyball too," Vladimir Boegoevski, Chef de Mission for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia who witnessed 3x3 at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing.

"There have been modifications in some disciplines and these have had success."

"Three on three makes the game more accessible."

Boegoevski added: "There are many people who can’t play conventional basketball because of the physical side, because in basketball you need a minimum of two guys who are 2.10 or 2.15 metres [tall] . 

"Here you can play with smaller people who shoot well and move faster. 

"This is the difference with the other discipline.

"In this sport, you can put the court anywhere. 

"You can put it in the middle of the city, you can have it where you want, it only depends on how many people you want to have in the stands. You can play it in the stadium if you want.’’

"This will be one of the attractions of the next Olympic Games. 

"I think we are all optimistic for Tokyo for sure."