Malta’s strongest youth athlete keeps getting stronger. Tenishia Thornton along with senior athlete Shaun Ciantar. Two Maltese athletes were invited to compete in the Italian Regional Championships in Lanuvio last weekend.
Thornton had the best competition of her 3 year weightlifting career where she managed to finish with personal best lifts across the board. She started the competition on a ‘no lift’ with her 50kg opener snatch but quick turned her performance round by successfully lifting 50kg and 52kg on her remaining attempts. She then went on to lift 60kg, 62kg, and 64kg in the clean and jerk. Thornton is only 13 years old and lift in the -45kg category; all her top lifts were national records and personal bests. Furthermore, she finished in 2nd place overall in the youth category when matched up against Italy’s top youngsters. The 13 year old will now be preparing for the upcoming European Youth Championships set to take place in Israel at the end of the year.
Senior athlete Shaun Ciantar did not have his best performance compared to his recent results in national meets. Ciantar, who has only been in the sport a little over a year, said it was his inconsistencies in his technique that kept him from performing at his best at these championships and will work harder to continue to improve on his best results. He ended the meet with a 97kg snatch and 124kg clean and jerk.
The team were accompanied by national team coach Jesmond Caruana who thanked Mr. Massimo Grassi President of FIPE Lazio for the invitation, along with SportMalta MOC and MWA for their constant support during these international competitions.