The Malta weightlifting Association last week organized an international training camp which then was followed by the fifth weightlifting Mediterranean cup. This training camp and competition was carried out using the last state of the art technology at the Cottonera sports complex.
The Nations which took part are Turkey which came in first place with 1233 points, followed by Italy with 1179 points, then Israel with 906points and in a respectable fourth place came Malta with 848 points. In fifth place came Slovenia, then Cyprus followed by Spain, Serbia and Libya.
.In this competition the Maltese lifters lifted a good number of personal bests. Christian Saliba broke three national records in the junior section with a 1kg increase in both the snatch and the clean and jerk totaling 212kg. Steve Borg increased his snatch by 5kg while young Kimberly Coleiro increased her total by 8kg for a total of 88kg. Veteran lifter Emmanuel Cammilleri also increased his total by 8kg for a respectable 163kg total while Rodmar Pulis 16 increased his total by 4kg for 177kg. Ryan Agius increased his total by 3 kg to 167kg.Last but not least Noel Coleiro increased his total by 3kg for 235kg. Clint Grech and Nicole Gatt were also fundamental to increase the points for the Maltese national team.
Honoring us with his attendance for this competition was Dr.Tamas Ajan who is the president of the International weightlifting Federation (IWF) and an IOC member. Other dignitaries who attended for the competition are Dr. Hassan Akkus who is the vice president of IWF, Dr. Ammar Addidi being the President Mediterranean Games, Maurizio Lo Buono the President of the Mediterranean Weightlifting confederation and last but not least Dr.Khaled Mehmed Mahlhel who is the president of African Weightlifting Federation.
A good number of Maltese officials took part in the running of the competition; these were Simon Brincat, David Saliba, Alfred Ellul Mercer, Gayle Caruana, Ramona Borg and Rodienne Balzan. Apart from these officials a good number of helps gave a helping hand in setting up the hall and in the running and loading of the weights. Big thanks go to these persons without which the competition would not have been a great success. Big thank also goes to KMS for the support for this competition and all sponsors that gave help for this successful event.