Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/531627
21 Sport maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 24 JUNE 2015 TRIATHLON WEIGHTLIFTING Success for local triathletes at the Garmin Barcelona Triathlon Podium finish for Pace in Females Sprint Race GRAHAM Borg (Birkirkara St. Joseph) and Hannah Pace (Pem- broke Athleta) joined thousands of triathletes on Sunday 21st June on the starting line of the Garmin Barcelona Triathlon, which has since its inception in 2008 at- tracted thousands of profession- al and amateur triathletes. This race was Birkirkara St. Joseph's Graham Borg's first foray in the professional catego- ry when he was invited to race with the likes of Olympian and Junior World Championships Gold Medal Winner (2009), one of the top pro triathletes in the world and subsequent winner on the day - Mario Mola, pro Welsh national Triathlete Liam Lloyd, Guillem Moreno and Spanish national team member Cesc Go- doy. Graham exited the water in a time of 20:43. Racing in draft legal conditions, Graham held his own with the top athletes, completing the fast, f lat course in 56 minutes, 10 sec- onds. Borg registered a time of 37 minutes 48 seconds in the run to complete the race in 1 hour 58 mins and 30 seconds, secur- ing sixteenth place in the over- all classification and fifth in the overall classification excluding the Pro category. Commenting after the race Borg expressed his satisfaction at having improved on the run, which used to be in- ferior to his swim and bike, but consistent and focused training has shown good results. Garmin sponsored, Pembroke Athleta, triathlete Hannah Pace, put on a very determined per- formance to finish second female in a time of 1 hour 3 minutes and 51 seconds. Racing in very hot and humid conditions, Pace was second out of the water, one minute after leading triathlete. Pace tackled the f lat and fast bike course with sheer focus to register the fastest female bike split of the day. Although draft legal Pace was on the front of the peloton resulting her cycling alone on the way. With the run segment being undertaken in the midday sun and with the efforts of the bike taking a slight toll, Pace was still capable of finishing the Sprint Race in second posi- tion and thus winning a place on the prestigious podium. Winner of the race was professional tria- thlete María Pujol Perez who in her career has won several pres- tigious titles. Pace and Borg's participation in the Garmin Barcelona Triathlon was made possible through the assistance of Garmin Malta, rep- resented locally by Medcomms Malta Ltd. and Garmin Spain. Pace and Borg's international commitments continue in July, when they will be joining the rest of the Malta National Triathlon team for the 2015 ETU Triathlon European Championships to be held in Geneve, Switzerland. "Hannah and Graham have always done the Garmin Brand proud with their achievements, but today they exceeded our ex- pectations and we are very happy with the results registered today." said Mark Gaglione, Garmin dis- tributor for Malta. Hannah Pace (L) celebrates on the podium Graham Borg Positive results for Malta in Rome YOUR FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY www.maltatoday.com.mt A team of three athletes represent- ed Malta at the EU Weightlifting Championship for Youths, held on 19-20 June in Rome. A total of fourteen countries par- ticipated in this event. This was the first time Malta participated in this championship. The competitions were spread over two days, with athletes Kieran Mifsud, Owen Bugeja and Sarah Grixti taking part and leaving their mark at what turned out to be a high level of competition. For Grixti, this was her first ever international competition abroad and even with such pressure, she managed to remain calm and com- posed and completed all of her six lifts successfully, finishing with a total of 113kg. The best result come from fifteen year old Kieran Mifsud, who also managed to successfully lift all of his six attempts, lifting a total of 236kg, and subsequently placing 4th. First place went to Po- land followed by Italy and Austria. The powerful Mifsud lifted 28kg more than his closest rival who represented Austria, however he was unfortunate to have missed out on a place on the podium due to being the heavier lifter in terms of bodyweight, which then earned his rival just 6 more points. Mifsud also managed to break the total of 18 na- tional records in Snatch, Clean and Jerk and total in the under 17 and under 20. The athletes where under the guidance of their coach Jesmond Caruana. Gayle Caruana was se- lected from the EUWC for the duty of Technical official. This compe- tition would not have been made possible without the help of the EUWC, Malta Olympic Commit- tee and Kunsill Malti ghall-iSport.