Over the past weekend, 45 weightlifters from 6 clubs battled it out in the Malta Weightlifting Club Competition & ZKC International. The event saw some of Malta’s most promising Weightlifters including Yazmin Zammit Stevens who will be competing in this years University Games in Taipei this August, and Kieran Mifsud who is also preparing for another major international competition, the Commonwealth Championships in Australia this September.
Alpha WL club dominated the event having the largest amount of athletes with the majority of them ranking at the top of their group. The cadets kicked the day off with an exciting showing. First time competitor, Tenishia Thornton (Alpha WL Club), in the category for cadets competing on Sunday, managed to fight it out with the boys lifting an impressive total of 50kg and set 3 national records. Young, but persistent Rylee Borg (Alpha WL Club) showed that he is more than just an experienced weightlifter with a confident performance, breaking his own previous national records and finishing with a total of 76kg.
The women’s group saw the return of national team athlete, Elisia Scicluna, who was back for her first competition since having knee surgery last May. Elisa Scicluna represented the Alpha WL Club and managed a respectable 148kg total. Yasmin Zammit Stevens of Northern Strength WL Club had her best performance to date breaking a total of 4 national records. She managed a 79kg snatch and a solid 97kg clean and jerk on her second attempt. Zammit Stevens attempted 100kg on her third and final attempt of the clean and jerk, and while being successful on the clean part of the lift, closely missed out on the jerk.
Other impressive results came from Junior weightlifter, Rebecca Fitz (representing DEGREE + um), who successfully lifted a total of 119kg and even managed national records in the process.
The men’s group saw 20 athletes lifting on Sunday. Alpha WL Club’s Kieran Mifsud dominated the group with an easy total finish of 275kg. His total sinclair of 300.23 points was a clear 19 points ahead of second place athlete Matthew Camilleri from Northern Strength Weightlifting. Rodmar Pulis (Alpha WL Club) surprised spectators with a great performance, finishing in third place overall in the men’s group.
Overall, Alpha WL Club finished on top with a whopping total of 3727.48 points, followed by Northern Strength Weightlifting Club with 1497.80 points. Crossfit 356 finished in third place with 1239.20 points.Degree + UM, The Garage & Tritones SC followed respectively.