Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/451763
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 25 JANUARY 2015 Sport 37 THE Malta Weightlifting Asso- ciation (MWA) yesterday held its annual general meeting at which Jesmond Caruana was once again confirmed in the position of presi- dent of the association with no other contestants for the position. The Committee for the next term will be: J. Caruana president, J. Vassallo general secretary, R. Borg treasurer, and M. Pisani and R. Pu- lis board members. Presentations of the reports high- lighting the successes of the year were also presented, and these in- cluded international competitions both for the national team as well as individual achievements, with 21 athletes and 15 officials represent- ing Malta throughout the year. These various events included the Commonwealth Games, Youth Olympic Games, World and Eu- ropean Championships as well as a number of regional champion- ships including the Mediterranean Cup and European Small Nations, among others. Lastly four inter- national training camps were also organized. These opportunities may have contributed to improvements among the local athletes' perform- ances, as 121 national records were broken and medals achieved at the international scene. Also worthy of mention is that new training cen- tres have been set up in different locations. A thorough plan of action for this year and the upcoming were also presented, with the closest activity being the Mediterranean Weightlifting Cup to be organised in Malta between 19 and 22 March. In conjunction with this competi- tion an international seminar will also be hosted. The MWA wishes many thanks to the MOC, KMS, IWF, EWF, MWC, among others, they are the backbone of local success. FORMULA 1 WEIGHTLIFTING TENNIS CRICKET Scuderia warns of revolution in Formula 1 amid declining interest FERRARI Boss Maurizio Arriva- bene has suggested he wants the sport to make noise and revolu- tionise its approach The Scuderia's public disdain for F1's quieter but greener turbo era has been as loudly pronounced as their on track struggles since the introduction of V6 engines last year. Ferrari failed to win a sin- gle race last season, which had not happened for over a decade. In a fresh outburst of the sports' current approach, Boss Maurizio Arrivabene has called for F1 to be made "more spectacular" and even suggested that the sport is facing a struggle to keep fans interested. ''By 2017, I too would like to see cars that win over the fans, with cars that they can get closer to and that are aesthetically more appealing, maybe even producing a noise that gets your hair stand- ing on end, like that produced by a heav y metal band,'' said Arriva- bene. The Ferrari boss also suggested that F1 should consider the inclu- sion of pre-race press conferences "outside the circuit in a public ar- ea" amid a clear declining interest in favour of the internet and video games. "It is up to us to provide some- thing better and to download a new format for Formula 1 as soon as possible," he concluded. Jesmond Caruana confirmed as president of the Malta Weightlifting Association Matches postponed due to rain THE scheduled fixture between Mel- ita Bees and Krishna Kobras, which would have brought the second round to an end, was postponed yesterday due to the bad weather. The Winter Wallop table at present stands Marsa Magpies on top with 34 points, having played their four games, while Melita have 32 points and Krishna 22 points with a game to play. Had yesterday's game been played, with a win worth 12 points (plus any bonus points) the table could change drastically. So far Frank Spiteri has the most runs, with 128, he also has made the only half century and thus has the highest individual score of 53 runs. He also has the most boundaries with 12 and is also equal highest with most sixes with Haroon Majeed with three each. Tony Azzopardi is not that far be- hind with 121 runs and Nowell Kho- sla is third with 98 runs. Khosla is still first though when it comes to overall runs scored since the Winter league began in 2005, he has 1,215 runs, Mike Caruana has 1,181 runs and Spi- teri has 765 runs. In the bowling department Ronnie Sacco heads the table with five wick- ets, Mike Caruana has four while three bowlers, Joy Ghoseroy, Tim Wheeler and Amy Caruana have three each. Overall, again, Nowell Khosla is the leader with 62 wickets, hot on his tail is Sacco with 60 and Mike Caruana has 49. The highest team scores were both made in the last game played, Marsa scored 188 runs while Melita scored 171. The next team score was also by Marsa, that of 151. Not a good sign for the Kobras whose highest (5th) score was 133 runs. With one more round to go and the postponed game anything can hap- pen. To follow the league ladder, one can go to http://maltacricket.com/ match-zone/fixtures/ Next Saturday the Krishna Kobras take on the Marsa Magpies. The Sunoco Cricket academy/nurs- Australian Open: Djokovic eases past Verdasco NOT even the distraction of a spectator proposing to his girl- friend could prevent top seed No- vak Djokovic from easing into the last 16 of the Australian Open on Saturday. The romantic fan popped the question after the second set of Djokovic's third-round match with Fernando Verdasco and re- ceived not only a 'yes', but a mas- sive cheer from the rest of the crowd on Rod Laver Arena and applause from Djokovic himself. By that stage Djokovic had weathered the storm and was two sets ahead, the world number one crucially winning a tie-break in the opening set after failing to convert any of his six break points. "Credit to Fernando, it was a great match," Djokovic said in an on-court interview with four-time grand slim winner Jim Courier. "Fernando is a top-10 player, he has played in the final stages of grand slams and big tournaments. He has big power in his game. "Every time I had an opportuni- t y for the break he came up with a service winner or an ace and obvi- ously it was frustrating but I had to keep it together and the dif- ference was made in the first set when I won the tie-break." Verdasco was favourite to win that tie-break when an ace took him 5-3 ahead with another serve to come, but a terrible double fault let Djokovic off the hook and the Serbian eventually took his fourth set point to win it 10-8. Djokovic claimed an early break in the second set and crucially saved three break points in the next game with a hat-trick of aces. From then on there was only ever going to be one winner and Djok- ovic celebrated his 7-6 (10/8) 6-3 6-4 win by getting the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to his moth- er Dijana. Next up for the four-time cham- pion is Luxembourg's Gilles Muller, who won a big-serving battle with American John Isner that unsurprisingly featured tie- breaks in the first two sets and a total of 54 aces.