The continent’s major competition – the European Championships – were held in Split, Croatia, early this month with Malta represented in the meeting by Yazmin Zammit Stevens and Kieran Mifsud.

Zammit Stevens became the first woman lifter from Malta in the championships as she competed in the 63kg category. Mifsud was in the 105kg class.

Zammit Stevens went on to achieve a creditable seventh place in her group ahead of other lifters from Ireland, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark and Israel. She was classified 15th in the overall classification.

In Split, Zammit Stevens also succeeded in breaking her own snatch record with a 76kg attempt. She went on to make her first attempt at the 90kg clean and jerk but was unsuccessful with her other two attempts at 93kg.

At 17 years, Mifsud was the youngest lifter in his group as he also managed a seventh placing and 23rd overall.

Mifsud, looking confident on the platform after returning from a long injury lay-off, lifted 127kg snatch and 160kg clean and jerk, closing with a total of 287kg.

In the process he established 11 national records – six in the junior (U-20) category and five for the seniors.

Before the championships, Zammit Stevens and Mifsud had spent five weeks in Rome practising with the Italian national team.

“Rome was a great experience,” Zammit Stevens said.

“We practised with professional athletes and lived the professional athlete’s life.

“All we did was train, eat and sleep. It was such a great oppor-tunity to concentrate on our competition.”

Jesmond Caruana, president of the Malta Weightlifting Association, was also in Split for the championships.

He was called upon as a member of the judges’ panel while Stephen Borg was selected as technical controller.