Malta Weightlifting Association organise third ranking competition

This competition was of particular importance as it served in part as preparation for international competitions, as well as for many other dedicated athletes during this summer who have gone through great lengths in train to improve their performance levels. It must be said that this event was a great milestone for the sport's future on a local level, with nearly all athletes registering personal bests and 19 national records being broken on the day, with a majority of which come from the youth categories.

The first competition of the day was that of the female athletes, with the best results coming from Sarah Grixti, where she lifted a total of 113kg, as well as setting five national records in both categories youths and juniors. Other positive results came from Natalie Borg, who totaled 79kg and Hayley Mizzi with a total of 71kg. Good results came from guest in competition Melanie Boenzli from Switzerland with a total of 101kg. Other athletes who have made progress and are worth mentioning are Elenor Cumbo, Alexia Guigia and Amy Zammit.

The second competition of the event saw the first male athletes take to the stage, and as expected was a much fiercer showing: Andy Grech totaling 131kg and earning 168 "Sinclair" points, Calvin Dean Caruana with a 155kg total and 172 points. This event also saw Marco Toma from Switzerland lifting a total of 145kg and scoring 179 points, just one point over local athlete Kirstin Coleiro. The biggest challenge of the day was from the top six athletes listed in the category, in which Owen Bugeja lifted 91kg in his best Snatch attempt, 3kgs over that of veteran Noel Coleiro. In the Clean and Jerk section, Bugeja lifted 101kg but narrowly missing his third and final attempt at 110kg - seeing Coleiro victorious in this category with 120kg. The best result came from Kieran Mifsud, 15 years old, who was successful in his 101kg Snatch attempt as well as a 132kg Clean and Jerk final attempt, totaling 233kg and setting 13 new national records in both youth, junior and even senior - with these results, placing 1st in rankings and reaching international level quota. The challenge continued when Rodmar Pulis had shaky start in Snatch and he managed to lift the 101 kg in his last attempt, Ryan Agius continue climbing till 105 kg while Martin Pisani finished the snatch with 110 kg. In the Clean & Jerk Agius had problems to fix the bar over head and he had to wait for the last attempt to lift the 120 kg, Pisani continued achieving good lift till130 kg but he missed his last attempt on 133 kg but in the Clean and Jerk Pulis, Pulis was more confident and lifted 138 kg with this lift he set new Juniors national record.

With these results Pulis obtained the best result overall with 294 points, followed by Agius 277 points, Pisani 266 and Mifsud 263. The competitions were refereed by three female officials, Ramona Borg, Rodienne Balzan and Gayle Caruana, they were assisted by Alfred Ellul Mercer and Jesmond Caruana.

These positive results are the fruit of hard training that the athletes have made over the last three months of training camps with the coach Sevdalin Marinov. These camps where not possible without the help of Malta Olympic Committee, Malta Sport Council and the international weightlifting federation.

 At the end of this week athletes Kieran Mifsud and Rodmar Pulis will represent Malta in international competition in Serbia they will be accompanied by Jesmond Caruana, while Stephen Borg will participate in a congress and elections for the European Union countries he is also selected to referee during a competition for EU countries in Split in Croatia.