Maltese weightlifting senior champion Yazmin Zammit Stevens has successfully competed at the IWF World Weightlifting Championships and finished with a staggering 17th place overall. The Maltese lifter is the only athlete to ever compete at the World Championships in weightlifting and has done so twice now in her career.
Zammit Stevens and her coach Jesmond Caruana have had a battling journey towards the meet this year after having to deal with an injury in the past few months. Although being uncertain if she was going to recover in time to prepare for the World championships, Yazmin never lost faith and continued to push through her rehabilitation towards recovering for the Olympic qualification event that took place in Pattaya Thailand.
Despite the hurdles encountered in her preparation, the Maltese lifter finished in an incredible 17th place overall, 5th place in the group B session, increased her best ever total by 1kg and improved her chances towards making it to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Her 85kg snatch, 105kg clean and jerk and 190kg total were also good enough for national records.
The 71kg category saw athletes from all over the worlds battling for every possible improvement on their world rankings on their way to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games. Zammit Stevens managed to surpass the athletes from Iran, Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia.
The 71kg category was won by American lifter Kate Nye who also broke a World Record in the snatch on the day. Mattie Rogers, also from USA, finished in second while Korea’s Kyo Him Sim took the bronze. Zammit Stevens will compete once again very soon at the Mediterranean Championships & International Open which will also be a Silver ranked Olympic qualification event. She will be accompanied there by fellow team mates Roberta Tabone and Brian Muscat.
The world championships were Zammit Stevens 1st qualifier event during this second period (May-October) of Olympic qualification opportunities. San Marino will be another opportunity in this second period to add up to her result from the World championships. The third and last period of qualification events will commence from the 1st of November until the end of April in 2020.
This opportunity would have not been possible without the continuous help given by the MWA, the Maltese Olympic committee and Sport Malta