On the 14th of November the Malta Weightlifting Association organized the national weightlifting Championships at the Cottonera sports Complex.
A remarkable improvement was achieved in the women’s section when no less than 12 national records were broken. At just 13 years old Nicole Gatt managed to break 3 records in the 48kg youths section as well as three other records in the 48kg Juniors. This promising lifter managed to lift a total of 71 kilos.
16 year old Kimberley Coleiro broke another three records in the 69kg+ youths as well as three other records in the 75kg+ Juniors. She managed to lift a total of 94 Kilos. These improvements are proving the popularity of this sport amongst female athletes.
Amongst the male section Emmanuel Camilleri was the lifter who stood out most when he won the 62 kg category with 21 points over the result of his last competition with a total of 177kilos. The 69 kilo category was won by Clint Grech where he managed a total of 196 kilos. It must also be mentioned that this lifter attempted two serious efforts to break the national record. Another outstanding lifter in the 77kg class was Rodmar Pulis who at just 16 years old won this category with a promising total of 180kg. Noel Coleiro managed to dominate the 94 kilo category with a total of 235 kilos.
With the result achieved Coleiro also managed to win the overall competition with a total of 274 points followed by Clint Grech with 264 points and Emanuel Camilleri with 254 points. The Competition was run and organized by Jesmond Caruana and was controlled by three referees, Gordon Cachia, Ramona Borg and Gayle Caruana. Time Keeping and Weight Controlling were run by Madeleine Coleiro.
This Competition with its encouraging number of participating athletes was part of the preparation for the Maltese participation in the Eurpean Championships which will be held in Cyprus on the 24th of November. Christian Saliba will be participating in the 84Kg class Juniors., Rodmar Pulis and Kimberley Coleiro will participate in the Mediterranean Tournament for the under sixteen the lifters will also attend a training camp to be held in Limasol Cyprus. The lifters will be accompanied by the President of the Weightlifting Association Jesmond Caruana. Mr.Caruana plans to discuss the possibility of holding this esteemed competition in Malta in the future.
On the 3rd of December a group of lifters and officials will be going to London to participate in an open tournamanet held amongst various weightlifting clubs in the UK. The Maltese Contingent shall consist of Stephen Borg, Noel Coleiro, Cleaven Cutajar, Rodmar Pulis and Emmanuel Camilleri they shall be accompanied by Coach Mark Pirotta and Jesmond Caruana as one of the Technical Officers of the Competition. Amongst the teams participating are the Scottish teams and the Irish teams, who at the moment both are going through a regime of intensive training in preparation for the Olympics to be held in London in 2012.
In an effort to keep promoting this sport the Association would like to invite people interested in the sport to attend free training sessions. Those interested must be over 11 years old.