The Malta Weightlifting Association recently organized the national championships at the Cottonera sports Complex.
A remarkable improvement was achieved in the women’s section when no less than 12 national records were broken. At just 13 years old Nicole Gatt managed to break three records in the 48kg youths section as well as three other records in the 48kg Juniors. This promising lifter managed to lift a total of 71 kilos.
16-year-old Kimberley Coleiro broke another three records in the 69kg+ youths as well as three other records in the 75kg+ Juniors. She managed to lift a total of 94 kilos. These improvements are proving the popularity of this sport amongst female athletes.
Among the males, Emmanuel Camilleri was the lifter who stood out when he won the 62 kg category with 21 points over the result of his last competition with a total of 177 kilos.
The 69 kilo category was won by Clint Grech where he lifted 196 kilos. It must also be mentioned that this lifter attempted twice to break the national record. Another outstanding lifter in the 77kg class was Rodmar Pulis who, at just 16 years, won this category with a promising total of 180kg. Noel Coleiro dominated the 94 kilo category with a total of 235 kilos.
With the result achieved Coleiro also managed to win the overall competition with a total of 274 points followed by Clint Grech with 264 points and Emanuel Camilleri with 254 points.
The competition was run and organised by Jesmond Caruana and was controlled by three referees, Gordon Cachia, Ramona Borg and Gayle Caruana. Time Keeping and Weight Controlling were run by Madeleine Coleiro.
This competition, with its encouraging number of participating athletes, was part of the preparation for Malta’s participation in the Eurpean Championships which are tol be held in Cyprus on 24 November.
Christian Saliba will be participating in the 84Kg class Juniors. Rodmar Pulis and Kimberley Coleiro will participate in the Mediterranean tournament for the Under 16 the lifters and will also attend a training camp to be held in Limassol, Cyprus.
The lifters will be accompanied by the President of the Weightlifting Association Jesmond Caruana. Caruana plans to discuss the possibility of holding this esteemed competition in Malta in the future.
On 3 December a group of lifters and officials will be going to London to participate in an open tournament held among various weightlifting clubs in the UK.
The Maltese contingent will consist of Stephen Borg, Noel Coleiro, Cleaven Cutajar, Rodmar Pulis and Emmanuel Camilleri. They will be accompanied by coach Mark Pirotta and Jesmond Caruana as one of the Technical Officers of the competition.
Among those participating are the Scottish and Irish teams whom at the momentm are going through a programme of intensive training in preparation for the Olympics to be held in London in 2012.
In an effort to keep promoting this sport the association is inviting people interested in the sport to attend free training sessions. Those interested must be over 11 years old.