Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1048856
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 7 NOVEMBER 2018 22 SPORTS MOTOCROSS THE opening of the 2018 National WotoMoto Enduro 2018/2019 Championship is to take place on Sunday 11 November at the ASMK Sport Complex at Ta' Qali. Once again this National Champi- onship will be spread over six events where five races will be held in Malta and one more will be held in Gozo. This sea- son is being well supported by several quarry owners in Malta and Gozo who allow their quarry to be turned into a Moto Enduro race location. However, as is common prac- tice the first event will be held at the ASMK Sports Complex in Ta' Qali. The program be- gins at 10am. This second season is again being sponsored by BETA of the firm Wotomoto Company Ltd that are the major spon- sor of this '2018 BETA Enduro Challenge' right from the first event of the Championship. The day's event consists of an Enduro race against the clock involving all competi- tors present along a special route formed at the ASMK Complex. The competitors start at one minute intervals and Lap times of the race are controlled electronically. The winner of the day, in ad- dition to the trophy of the day, will also take home a brand new BETA RR 300cc 2T mo- torcycle which will be pre- sented to the winner by the WotoMoto Malta Ltd repre- sentative. This motorcycle is given to the winner of the day to keep for a whole year and to participate in all the season's events including all the train- ing sessions needed as prepa- ration for each event. This season a new rule will be taking effect when it comes to the championship final result since during the last season two competitors finished with exactly the same scores. So, the Enduro Committee is tak- ing new measures to prevent such a situation from happen- ing again. For this season the result will not be issued on 'the best time from two laps' but is being is- sued as per the International system where the winner of the day is the one who regis- ters the lowest Lap Time from the total of the Two Heats of the same event. So it will be very difficult to have parity again as happened last season. Meanwhile on Sunday 4 No- vember ASMK planned to start the Autocross cars sea- son's races but this first event of the ASMK Pasta Poiatti National Autocross Champi- onship 2018/2019 had to be postponed. The race cancella- tion was decided early on Sun- day morning due to the heavy downpour during Saturday night. The Autocross Com- mittee announced that this event will be held on Sunday 18 November 2018 and starts at 10am. ASMK Wotomoto Enduro at Ta' Qali on Sunday Photo: Mario Micallef from Enduro Beta Challenge 2017 MALTA'S first ever representative at the IWF World Championships, Yazmin Zammit Stevens, finished in 5th place in her group on the world stage. The championships, organised in Ashgabat, brought together the world's highest ranked lifters from 88 different countries from all around the world, which makes these championships the highest level competition in weightlift- ing. Zammit Stevens competed in the new- ly-established 64kg category where she finished with a 80kg snatch and 99kg clean and jerk. Unfortunately, one of her snatches at 83kg and a clean and jerk at 101kg were controversially ruled no lifts by referees for elbow press out, which were not evident when the lifts were replayed. The 179kg total was still enough to put Yazmin in 5th place in her group amongst the best lifters in the world. The Turkmenistan media were very happy to welcome Yazmin to the World Championships and in fact they held an interview with her after the competition as they were documenting her journey from her crowd-funding campaign a few months ago. In the interview Yazmin said she was grateful for the Maltese public for helping her with her journey and felt like she owed them a great result. Even though she aimed for more kilos than she attained, she man- aged a good result and hoped she made Malta proud. She continued to say that this was only the first step of a very long process, and she and her coach will take this result, learn from it and build on it. She also thanked the Malta Weightlift- ing Association, Malta Olympic Com- mittee and SportMalta for their help. The IWF World Championships were the first qualifier event for the 2020 To- kyo Olympics. Other qualifying events include the Doha Cup in Qatar in late December. Zammit Stevens was accompanied by her coach, Jesmond Caruana, who is no stranger to the World Championships. However, at these major champion- ships he is usually on duty as an official, so this was, of course, also his first as coach. Zammit Stevens secures fifth place in World Championships WEIGHTLIFTING