A team from the Malta weightlifting Association participated in the 9th Vladan Mihailovic international competition in Indjija, Serbia. The Maltese team consisting of Yazmin Zammit Stevens, Matthew Camilleri and Kyle Micallef performed very well. This Competition saw eight countries competing together namely Serbia, Romania, Turkey, Hungary, Israel, Bosnia Herzegovina, Slovenia and Malta. The competition was split in two, ranking both the individual results and those attained by a team.
The first competition saw 11 female athletes compete with Zammit Stevens achieving a very positive result. She managed a personal best result by lifting a total of 159kg and even managed to secure a bronze medal in the snatch part of the competition. Second in action was Matthew Camilleri lifting a total of 233kg, a good improvement on his competition best in an international event. Kyle Micallef was the last Maltese athlete to take the platform lifting a total of 269kg and totaling at 317 points. This result was good enough to surpass results by athletes from Romania, Bosnia, Slovenia and Serbia. The Competition was very tight and so it was only the last attempts that determined the final positions being calculated on the athletes bodyweight.
Overall, the Maltese team finished in a respectable 4th place totalling 524 points with Hungary finishing first (634 points) followed by Israel (610 points) and Turkey (543 points).
This competition was especially important for Zammit Stevens and Micallef as they are in their final preparations to compete in the Commonwealth championship at the end of October in Malaysia. This is part of the series of competitions to obtain qualification for the Mediterranean games in 2017 and the Commonwealth games in 2018.
Jesmond Caruana President of the Association was pointed president of jury during the same competition. The competition was possible with assistance of the Maltese Olympic Committee and Serbian weightlifting federation.