Malta’s leading female athletes took on the Italian National Championships this weekend in Rome. Both Yazmin Zammit Stevens and Elisia Scicluna are preparing for some major upcoming competitions, namely the Commonwealth Games and the Mediterranean Games among other tournaments and championships in between. The athletes were accompanied by national team coach and president of the MWA, Jesmond Caruana, who was also presenting medals as an honorary guest at the meet.
Yazmin Zammit Stevens (69kg) was the first to take on the platform in what was one of the toughest competitions. She finished with an 80kg snatch on her second attempt, missing out on 83kg on her third. She then continued to lift a 98kg clean and jerk on her last attempt, after closely missing her first two attempts. This result is only 2kg under her best ever performance back in November, were she has since been recovering very well from an injury. She showed she is on the right track in her final preparations for the Commonwealth Games in only 6 weeks time.
Elisia Scicluna (+75kg) also had a respectable performance on the day. She finished with a 75kg snatch and 94kg clean and jerk breaking 1 national record in the process. She also managed to finish in 3rd in her group with a total of 169kg matching her best ever performance done in Malta Championships only 4 weeks ago.
This was the last international championships prior to the Commonwealth Games for Zammit Stevens, and both Zammit Stevens and Scicluna will be participating in another national competition in 3 weeks.