This Sunday the Malta Weightlifting Association organized the 3rd Ranking and qualifiers competition for this year at the Cottonera Sport Complex.
Despite the summer months usually being an off season period for most athletes, many lifters showed they have not been taking any breaks with numerous records being broken and personal bests achieved.
The cadets were the first group to take the platform with an excellent performance from all of Malta’s youngest lifters. Rylee Borg finished in 1st with 139 points followed by Kyle Camilleri (135 points) and Nikolai Muscat (90 points). 12 year old Tenishia Thornton finished 1st with a great result achieved in the cadets rankings with (109 points). Many cadet records were broken at the event.
In the women category, youth athlete Shelby Vassallo had a great showing lifting the total weights of 116kg and set 12 national records in the 69kg Category both in youth and junior categories. Elisia Scicluna showed she is back in her best shape after suffering and injury and undergoing surgery a few months ago. She lifted the total of 159kg, which is an equal total to her beat ever total pre surgery, and also set a new national record in Snatch in the process.
Men youth lifter Shawn Incorvaja lifted a total of 141kg, followed by Emerson Sultana 126kg and Tristan Zammit 110kg.
Men juniors was dominated by Kieran Mifsud despite this competition being just a light training session as part of his preparation for Commonwealth Games set to take place in 2018. He lifted a total of 275kg (299points), followed by Andy Grech 206kg (252points) and Keith Azzopardi 142kg (182points)
In the men category, Vlad Baldacchino showed huge improvement lifting an impressive 258 kg total in the 94kg category scoring 296 points. Matthew Camilleri followed with a total of 240kg scoring 287points. Three athletes finished head to head, Anton Micallef 252.51 points, Andy Grech 252.33 and Brian Muscat 251.59.
This was last competition for the selections of athletes that will compete in international competitions between October and November, the European Juniors in Albania, Mediterranean cup in Slovenia and the Mihailovic International tournament in Serbia.