Yazmin Zammit Stevens returned home with a very positive result last weekend after finishing third in the Vladan Mihailovic international meeting which was held in Serbia.

Zammit Stevens was forming part of a team representing the Malta Weightlifting Association  (MWA) that also included Matthew Camilleri and Kyle Micallef.

Besides Malta, seven other countries took part in the competition – Romania, Turkey, Hungary, Israel, Bosnia, Slovenia and hosts Serbia.

The format saw results from individual events added up to determine the teams’ final rankings.

Zammit Stevens competed against 11 other weightlifters in her category. She managed a personal best result after lifting a total of 159kgs, securing a bronze medal in the snatch part of the competition.

Camilleri amassed a total of 233kgs, a significant improvement on his best international score.

Micallef was last to take the platform for the team, lifting a total of 269kgs to finish with 317 points.

The combined result for the Maltese lifters was good enough to place the team in fourth place overall on 524 points, ahead of Romania, Bosnia, Slovenia and Serbia.

The competition was very tight and it was only the last attempts that determined the top positions in the final classification.

Hungary won the tournament with 634 points, followed by Israel (610) and Turkey (543).

In Serbia, Zammit Stevens and Micallef were also making their final preparations for the Commonwealths Championship in Malaysia later this month.

Jesmond Caruana, the long-time MWA president, was appointed head of jury at the Vladan Mihailovic international meeting.

The MWA selection was assisted by the Maltese Olympic Committee, SportMalta and the Serbia Weightlifting Federation.