The European Weightlfiting Federation’s youth Training Camp & Scientific Seminar was organised over the past week in Ventspils Olympic Centre Latvia.
Eighty-eight athletes, coaches and three EWF Officials attended the events from fifteen EWF Member Federations.
The Maltese youth team was made up of Tenishia Thornton (13y/o), Shelby Mangion Vassallo(16y/0), Tristan Zammit (16y/o) and Rylee Borg(13y/o). They were accompanied by trainee coach Elisia Scicluna and national team coach Jesmond Caruana. Malta’s youngsters trained along side over 40 female and 40 male athletes from all over Europe including Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania Malta, Norway, Poland, San Marino, and Turkey with the average age of weightlifters being 16.3 years old.
The Young weightlifters started their day early in the morning with exercises in Ventspils stadium followed by breakfast and then off to the weightlifting centre for their morning weightlifting session where they were mainly overlooked by Eduards Andrukevics (EWF Member of Coaching Research & Scientific Committee) . After getting some well needed rest they were off for their afternoon training sessions 15:00. The coaches were also made to work hard, attending coaching seminars after dinner every night after a long day of coaching and learning from the international coaches available at the camp.
During the training camp coaches shared their personal experiences with each other while the athletes were happy to meet fellow youngsters from all over Europe who share their passion and lifestyle. Our youth team has, without any doubt, become stronger and stronger throughout the past years. The investment the MWA, the MOC and SPORTMALTA are making with this team is most definitely being translated into incredible achievements.
The youth team is currently preparing for some major international events coming up later this year, including the European Youth Championships which will be held in Eilat Israel and the Challenge 210 tournament in Switzerland.