Historic moment for Maltese sports as Tenishia Thornton crowned Youth World Champion at the 2022 IWF Youth World Championships in Mexico.
The MWA’s only representative at this event, 16 year old Thornton finished in first place overall in the 55kg category.
A total of 40 countries were participating in these championships. Thornton started off with a missed attempt at 76 kg in the snatch, which she then managed to make on her second attempt. The Egyptian lifter managed her third attempt at 76kg, while the Mexican lifter missed her third attempt at 77kg, which meant that Tenishia was already leading with only one good attempt. Nonetheless, she went on to strengthen her lead with a third attempt of 78 kg.
She went on to start her clean and jerks with an easy 96kg. Her opening lift had already secured her the clean and jerk gold and the total gold. However, Thornton went on to make her second attempt at 98kg and third at 100kg to strengthen her lead over the rest of the athletes. Egypt finished in second while Mexico finished in third. Her 178kg total meant that she surpassed second place by a whopping 7kg total. Her 100 kg was also a new national and commonwealth record in the. 55kg weight class
This is the first time for Malta Olympic history that athlete from Core sport won a World Championship title, which is a product of the tireless work being done by the MWA in an effort to produce these types of results internationally. Tenishia was accompanied by her coach, Jesmond Caruana, who is the driving force behind the work being done at the MWA.
This historic moment could not be possible with the support of MWA, MOC and SPORTMALTA.