This past week, the annual European Youth Championships held in Milan brought together Europe’s finest talent from 34 countries in the U15 and U17 age groups. Shelby Mangion Vassallo was the only representative at the championships, were she competed in the U17 63kg category A finals. Despite actually being an official U15 athlete, Mangion Vassallo competed with the elder athletes since it was in that age group that the championships counted as a qualification event for the upcoming Youth Olympic Games.
Unfortunately, Shelby didn’t perform at her absolute best, but nonetheless registered a respectable result in such a high scale event. She finished with a 60kg snatch and a 70kg clean and jerk. This was however the first time she competed in the 63kg category, as she has been cutting down to enter a lower body weight category. Therefore, she still managed to break 4 national records in the youths and 4 records in the junior 63kg category during this meet.
The competition included the best European youth athletes from each country. Shelby finished in 13th place, beating the Spanish lifter by 4kg.
Shelby was accompanied by national team coach, Jesmond Caruana, who has been preparing the athlete in the best way possible for the Youth Olympic Games set to take place in Buenos Aires this October.