Sir Temi Zammit Hall at the University of Malta was the venue for the recently held national championships.

Fourteen of Malta’s top athletes battled it out for the top prize of IFBB-Malta national champion.

The competition was very close especially in the under 75kg class where Roderick Theuma edged out Marco Farrugia to take the class.

Ralph Decelis, the 2005 and 2006 national champion, was the overall winner once again.

The top six overall are as follows: 1. Ralph Decelis, 2. Etienne Vella, 3. Jesmond Mercieca, 4. Roderick Theuma, 5. Marco Farrugia and 6 Mario Pace.

Ralph Decelis and Etienne Vella will be representing Malta at the IFBB European championships being held on May 17-18 at Playa De Aro-Costa Brava-Spain. Ralph and Etienne will be competing against the best bodybuilders in Europe.

More information can be found on IFBB-Malta’s website www.ifbb-malta.com.

Below are the results category by category:

Novices: 1st Josef Ellul 2nd Pierre Debono 3rd Brian Falzon

4th Lawrence Agius

Under 21 (Juniors) 1st Alistair Rizzo

Masters Over 40 1st Jesmond Mercieca 2nd Arnold Pampanella

Masters Over 50 1st Mario Pace 2nd Raymond Garret 3rd Sammy Ghiller

65 Kg 1st Lawrence Agius

75 Kg 1st Roderick Theuma 2nd Marco Farrugia

3rd Pierre Debono 4th Brian Falzon 5th Alistair Rizzo

80 Kg 1st Mario Pace 2nd Raymond Garret

85 Kg 1st Etienne Vella 2nd Jesmond Mercieca 3rd Josef Ellul 4th Sammy Ghiller

90 Kg 1st Arnold Pampanella

95 Kg 1st Ralph Decelis

Overall Top 6 1st Ralph Decelis 2nd Etienne Vella 3rd Jesmond Mercieca 4th Roderick Theuma 5th Marco Farrugia 6th Mario Pace