Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/269668
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 2 MARCH 2014 53 WEIGHTLIFTING FORMULA 1 Sport ON Sunday 16th February, the Kottonera Sports Complex host- ed the Malta Drug-Free Power- lifting Team Championships. Charles Degiorgio together with Ryan Agius and Justin Said won the Team Championships for the second year in a row as Heav y Lightweights. Together, they exceeded 1,000 points and scored 36 points more than sec- ond placed Heav y Metal trio Mario Mifsud, Adrian Cauchi and Cleaven Cutajar. Mark For- mosa, Daryl Psaila and Matthew Camilleri of The Pit followed in third place. Charles Degiorgio broke 3 National Records after lifting a 210KG Squat, 15KG more than his own record, a 246KG Dead- lift and also raised the Total record to 566KG at a body weight of 77.3KG. Mario Mifsud, lifted the three heaviest lifts - 230KG Squat, 170KG Bench Press and a 300KG Deadlift for a Total of 700KG in the under 125KG cat- egory and came in first place. Charles Degiorgio followed closely behind with only 3 points separating them, and in third place came Mark Formosa who had not competed for a year and a half. This was one of the largest com- petitions in Malta as 29 athletes took part, 3 of which were fe- males. 8 teams of 3 battled it out for the honours while 5 athletes lifted unattached to any teams. Several athletes competed for their first time, while some oth- ers had not competed in years and made their return the the sport. Ages varied from 14 year old Kirstin Abela and Denilson Manicaro to 64 year old Francis Spiteri. Pamela Psaila and Lor- na Cachia of The Pit competed for their first time and did well enough to lead the female Na- tional Rankings in 1st and 2nd place. For more information one can check out the facebook page "Malta Powerlifting MDFPA". Malta Drug-Free Powerlifting championships Massa fastest as Red Bull hits more trouble WILLIAMS driver Felipe Massa set the quickest time of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain on Saturday, while reigning World Champions Red Bull hit further problems and failed to complete a full lap. Massa, conducting his final scheduled stint at the wheel of the FW36 before the opening race weekend of the season in Australia, delivered a 1:33.258 in the closing stages of the afternoon session to stamp his authority over the field and bring to an end Force India's pace-setting run. It moved Massa and his team to the top of the list for the seven days of testing at Sakhir so far, with the Brazilian eclipsing Nico Rosberg's previous benchmark by just under three hundredths of a second. Red Bull's day was effectively over after two sectors, with the RB10 – in the hands of Sebastian Vettel for the first time this week – grounding to a halt on its instal- lation lap. After checking the car over for around 45 minutes, the mechanics opted to send the car out again, but it this time failed to go further than the end of the pit lane. It was a similar story at Sauber, with Adrian Sutil restricted to just one lap after a fire broke out on his install run. Back at the business end of the timesheets, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg ended the day as Massa's nearest challenger. The German had looked set to finish at the top of the pile after a sizeable improve- ment in the final 15 minutes, but his Williams rival responded with the aforementioned low 1m33s ef- fort to move two tenths clear. Rosberg's day was a particularly impressive one, given the fact that the Mercedes mechanics had to work through the night to fit a new power unit. After an early delay, he rewarded them with more than 100 laps. Kimi Räikkönen completed the top three positions, but again took the brunt of Ferrari's pre-season problems. Having spent the major- ity of the morning in his garage, he was ultimately able to put together his first race simulation of the pre- season, adding to the one team- mate Fernando Alonso carried out on Friday. McLaren's Kevin Magnussen, Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kv yat and Force India returnee Nico Hülken- berg followed in a closely-matched group, all avoiding major drama and racking up useful mileage for their respective teams. Despite a late morning stoppage, Jules Bianchi continued what has been an encouraging final test for Marussia, placing one second ahead of Caterham rival Marcus Ericsson, who completed the most laps of the day (117). Romain Grosjean was the last of the drivers to record a lap time, finishing almost nine seconds off the pace. His Lotus team was forced to end its day early once again, with the E22 suffering from further technical gremlins. Download the MaltaToday App now