Last week the Malta Weightlifting Association organized two events; first being the ZKC tournament, where 107 clubs from around the globe took part. Malta participated my means of two teams being the Cottonera and the Naxxar weightlifting teams. Positive results were obtained from Ryan Aguis who increased his clean and jerk by 2kg and totaled 211 points. Rodmar Pulis, who is still 15 years old, increased his snatch by 3kg and his clean and jerk by 2kg. The other athletes present all showed an improvement in their technique and lifting, however they did not manage to outscore their personal bests. The competition was run under the supervision of Jesmond Caruana and for the first time in the history of Maltese weightlifting by 2 female referrers, being Ramona Borg and Rodienne Balzan. This further increases the weightlifting administrative staff and later in July there will be examinations for national referees.
Apart from the competition, an exhibition was organised at the world cup village in Manoel Island with the help of the Malta Sports Council. A good number of athletes from the Cottonera club attended the event which culminated with Emanuel Schembri hoisting overhead 160kg in the clean and jerk. Joining in the event was a number of athletes from the Starmax athletics club most of whom were females. These athletes are under the tutelage of weightlifting coaches and this is done as part of the preparations for the Mediterranean Cup next October in Malta.