The Malta Weightlifting Association has organised its first competition for 2021. This competition was the first of it’s type for the MWA as it was dedicated only for cadet and youth athletes only. The participants included athletes from the Alpha Weightlifting Club and from the #Onthemove program organized by Sportmalta,
To follow the COVID-19 regulations, the competition was separated into very small groups of athletes. The competition saw many national records being broken and many athletes managed to achieve personal best results. The recent World Championships silver medalist, Tenishia Thornton, managed a 71kg snatch and 85kg clean and jerk in the 55kg category. She also managed a clean and jerk of 87kg on an extra attempt. This attempt, even though unofficial, would have been another 2kg over her own national record in this weight class. Her 71kg snatch attempt and 156kg total were national records in the U17, U23 and senior 55kg weight class. This competition served as a preparatory competition for upcoming international meets in 2021.
More successful results from the girls group came in the U15 categories. Kim Camilleri Lagana achieved the best result in this age group with a score of 185 points. She also managed to break 8 national records in the 40kg category in the under-15 age group and 7 in the under-17 group with a total of 87kg. This result was good enough to put the athlete in second place overall. Camilleri Lagana was followed by Aaliyah Gatt who managed a total of 74kg and also managed to break 4 national records in the U15 age group. Julia Grima (10 years old) achieved the best result in the U-13 with a score of 145 points. She competed in the 49kg class with a total lift of 89kg. Grima also set 7 national records.
The best results from boys group was achieved from 14 year old NSS student Rylee Borg. Borg competed in the U15 67kg category and lifted a total of 185kg. He scored 256 points and managed to break 5 national records both in the U15 and another 5 in the U17 age group. Borg was followed by Luke Treeby Ward with a total of 183 points. The best results in the boys cadet category came from Nathan Mifsud (136 points) who was followed by Luca Said ( 90 points).
This competition has proved the ongoing work the MWA has been doing in order to not only increase the performance level of the athletes, but also the participation of youths in this sport. Over the past few years the number of youth athletes has drastically increased with a lot of potential being discovered through these programs.