This past weekend another Maltese weightlifting team competed on the International platform in La Coruna, Spain. This competition saw athlete coming from 10 different countries including Germany, Canada, Hungary, Denmark, Slovenia, Portugal, Lithuania, England and the hoast country Spain.
The team was made up of Vlad Baldacchino, Anton Micallef, Roberta Tabone and Yazmin Zammit Stevens.
Roberta Tabone(-71KG), who is now a regular on the women national team, finished on a high at this meet as she managed a much awaited personal best total. After finishing the Snatch portion of the competition with only a successful first attempt at 70kg, she went on to lift all her clean and Jerks at 89kg, 92kg and a personal best clean and jerk of 95kg. Her 165kg total was also personal best lift, she ranked in 5th place out of 18 athletes with 207 points only 4 points under 3rd ranked.
The men’s team also had an exciting showing with the best performance coming from Vlad Baldacchino (-102kg). Who ended the meet with an equal best snatch of 128kg and a strong 155kg clean and jerk. With a total of 283kg he also set new national records. Anton Micallef (-81kg) had a respectable performance ending a 108kg snatch, only 1kg under his best, and 128kg clean and jerk.
Despite doing the snatch portion of the competition, Zammit Stevens is currently dealing with a minor injury and decided to retire from the competition before clean and jerks. Yazmin is getting ankle rehabilitation done and making sure she recovers in time to start her long preparations for the World Championships at the end of summer.
The team was accompanied by rookie coach, Elisia Scicluna, who is working into the coaching world of weightlifting and Referee Rodianne Balzan who was chosen to an official at this meet. This competition could not be possible without the friendship between Malta and Spain and the continues support from Malta Olympic Committee and SportMalta.