The Malta Weightlifting Association last week organised an international training camp which was followed by the fifth Mediterranean Cup tournament.

This training camp and competition were carried out using the last state of the art technology at the Cottonera Sports Complex.

The nations which took part were Turkey, which came in first place with 1,233 points, followed by Italy with 1,179 points, Israel with 906 points and Malta in a respectable fourth place with 848 points. In fifth place came Slovenia, then Cyprus followed by Spain, Serbia and Libya.

In this competition the Maltese lifters registered a good number of personal bests. Christian Saliba broke three national records in the junior section with a 1kg increase in both the snatch and the clean and jerk totaling 212kg.

Steve Borg increased his snatch by 5kg while young Kimberly Coleiro increased her total by 8kg for a total of 88kg. Veteran lifter Emmanuel Camilleri also increased his total by 8kg for a respectable 163kg total while Rodmar Pulis, 16, increased his total by 4kg for 177kg.

Ryan Agius increased his total by 3 kg to 167kg.Last but not least Noel Coleiro, who increased his total by 3kg for 235kg. Clint Grech and Nicole Gatt were also fundamental to increase the points for the Maltese national team.

Dr Tamas Ajan, president of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) and an IOC member, attended the event. Other dignitaries who attended for the competition were Dr Hassan Akkus, vice president of IWF, Dr Ammar Addidi, President Mediterranean Games, Maurizio Lo Buono, President of the Mediterranean Weightlifting Confederation and Dr Khaled Mehmed Mahlhel, president of African Weightlifting Federation.

A good number of Maltese officials took part in the running of the competition; these were Simon Brincat, David Saliba, Alfred Ellul Mercer, Gayle Caruana, Ramona Borg and Rodienne Balzan.

The local association also thanked KMS for the support for this competition and all sponsors who provided help for the success of the event.