Malcolm Camilleri during one of his lifts.

The Malta Weightlifting Association (MWA) recently hosted the annual competition for clubs at the Cottonera Sports Complex.

The tournament was particularly eventful, not least with the parti-cipation of 30 lifters and the in-volvement of all five clubs within the association’s fold.

Cottonera Centre lived up to their reputation and role as the base for the sport at a national level as they duly succeeded in securing first place ahead of Starmax, Heavy Lightweights, MCAST Naxxar and Noble Club, in that order.

Competition opened with the cadets category where some lifters were making their debut including the likes of Matthew Grech, Andy Grech and Kirstin Scerri.

There were other newcomers in the women’s event which was do-minated by Starmax and contested by eight competitors in all.

As expected, the more ex-perienced ones left their mark in the women’s event as Ivana Micallef and Nicole Gatt closed their competition with total lifts of 90kgs and 107kgs respectively.

This was another encouraging performance for Gatt, just back from international competition, as she continues with her steady progress ahead of next year’s Youth Olympics in China.

The other competition in programme was reserved for the best weightlifters on the local scene. They were joined by others coming up and showing promising talent.

There were various results of note in this event as well.

Malcolm Camilleri’s 101kgs total was enough for him to establish five new records in the 50kg category for youths as Joran Farrugia, Ryan Agius, Jovan Reljic and Martin Pisani also showed their true mettle with impressive lifts.

Rodmar Pulis relied on his vast experience after various perform-ances outside the country to secure the title at the Cottonera Sports Complex competition.

Pulis totalled an impressive 241kgs and shattered two national records, this time in the 85kgs weight category.

His 136kgs Clean and Jerk beat the previous junior Malta record which had stood for 15 years, a feat that was acknowledged by the crowd present at the Cottonera SC.

Earlier this month, Pulis was at the University Games in Russia and managed to obtain a creditable 20th placing from an entry of 29 lifters in his category.

In the coming months, Pulis will be joined by national squad team-mates Reljic and Matthew Muscat Inglott for some intensive training as they attempt to qualify for next year’s Commonwealth Games.