Nicole Gatt, Malta’s leading female athlete in the sport of Olympic Weightlifting, has participated at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships held in Penang, Malaysia, where she won the bronze medal in the -53kg Youth category. The first place was won by Nigeria followed by India. Gatt needed to battle hard for this medal against her main rival from Malaysia who had the home-turf advantage – Nicole was behind in the Snatch phase of the competition, having lifted 2kg less than her rival. With that, she needed at least 3kg more in than her rival in the Clean and Jerk to stand a chance for a medal, particularly so as she was at a higher body weight, which in turn results in lesser points. With the encouragement of President of the Malta Weightlifting Federation and acting coach Jesmond Caruana, Gatt managed to complete the competition with a total of 118kg – one precious kilo more than her Malaysian rival. Nicole also managed to break 15 Maltese national records in the Youths, Juniors and Seniors. These competitions are indeed challenging as she had to adapt to a different climate as well as time-zone, which will serve as good preparation for next year’s Youth Olympic Games to be held in Nanjing, China, where Gatt is to participate. This participation would not have been made possible had it not been for Malta Olympic Committee, the Malta Sport Council, and the Malaysian Weightlifting Federation
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