The second stage from the 2017 Malta Weightlifting Association Championships was held recently at the Cottonera Sports Complex.
Again, the meeting reached most of its objectives as 13 national records were registered on the day with lifters from the Open categories also eyeing berths and precious ranking points in the Commonwealth rankings.
Kyle Micallef was back in fine form after dealing with some minor injuries that hampered his competition late last year.
The 30-year-old proved that age is no barrier as he lifted his best total on record in any weight division. His 279kg (327 points) erased the previous record, which had stood for 13 years, and his 124kg snatch meant an improvement on his own record established last year.
Matthew Camilleri had a total of 237kg (287 points) to classify second and Vlad Baldacchino followed with a total of 240kg (273 points).
Other lifters in the men’s category, who accumulated 250 points and over, were Anton Micallef 222kg (257), Michael Fava 199kg (254), Vitaly Moltkoff 210kg (253) and Andy Grech 199kg (251).
In the women’s division, the competition was split in two groups due to big number of participants.
Here, the best effort was that of Elisia Scicluna even though she was not in her best form on the day.
Scicluna lifted a total of 151kg (178 points) with championship newcomer Christina Grima managing 134kg (169) for a creditable second place.
Kristen Borg followed in third place thanks to her 110kg (165). The day’s events had started with the competition for U-13s. Rylee Borg continued to show promise and ooze confidence when finishing with a total of 133 points, followed by Kyle Camilleri, 125, Nikolai Muscat, 74, and Luca Zammit, 64.
In the category for girls, the best results of the day came from Shazel Gusman and Shelby Vassallo.
Gusman lifted a total of 123kg which was translated to 150 points as she also set two new records in both youth and junior divisions in the process.
Vassallo cleared a total of 111kg and 132 points. During the meet, she set no fewer than seven national records in both youth division.
In the junior category, Rebecca Fitz lifted a total of 116kg, scoring 153 points and putting her name on the record books twice in her division.