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maltatoday WEDNESDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2017 Sport 23 WEIGHTLIFTING Answers to the MaltaToday crossword will be published next Wednesday WEATHER: Partly cloudy VISIBILITY: Good WIND: West Northwest force 3 to 4 becoming West force 2 to 3 SEA: Slight Swell: Negligible A B C D E F G H 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 White to play and mate in four moves A B C D E F G H 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Last week's solution Sudoku rules are extremely easy: Fill all empty squares so that the numbers 1 to 9 appear once in each row, column and 9x9 box. MAINLY SUNNY 20 º C /13 º C UV INDEX: 3 Today's Weather Chess Sudoku Pursuits Across 1. Allowable 6. Lecture 7. Indonesian resort island 10. Browned sliced bread 11. Undo 12. Female fowl 13. Soft felt-like fabric 14. Shut 16. Crustacean 18. Magician 19. Dorset town Down 1. Item having exchange value 2. Cocktail 3. Make smooth 4. Front part of an apron 5. Abrading tool 8. Person engaged in spaceflight 9. Intersection 13. German composer 15. Duck with soft down 17. Bleat of a sheep Nd6 Any move Qb6+ mate or Qb6+ Ke8 Nb6 mate Fourth place for Malta at the Mediterranean Cup THE Weightlifting Mediterra- nean Cup has come to an end this weekend with an excel- lent performance by the Mal- tese national team. The com- petition in Ljubljana brought together athletes from all around the Mediterranean with teams from Italy, Spain, France, Israel, Cyprus, Tuni- sia, Serbia, Bosnia, San Ma- rino and of course Slovenia. The Maltese team was made up of Matthew Camilleri, Andy Grech, Anton Micallef and Rodmar Pulis for the men, Elisia Scicluna and Shel- by Mangion Vassallo for the women. Scicluna and Mangion Vas- sallo were the first to take on the platform on Saturday morning. Shelby (-69kg) had a stellar performance managing to finish with 6/6 lifts, per- sonal bests in both the snatch and clean and jerk, and even broke 10 national records in the process with increase- ment of 10kg on previous records. She finished with a 56kg snatch and 70kg clean and jerk, a result particularly impressive given that she is only 14 years old. It was hard to believe this was her first international performance as she showed the confidence of an experienced veteran on the platform. Shelby has been showing consistency and de- termination in her prepara- tion for next year's Youth Olympic Games. Scicluna (-75kg) also man- aged a personal best perfor- mance in her first meet com- peting in a lower body weight category. Elisia finished with a 70kg snatch and a personal best clean and jerk of 90kg. The boys followed with an equally respectable perfor- mance. Matthew Camilleri (-85kg) finished with a 110kg snatch and 131kg clean and jerk, Rodmar Pulis (-94kg) showed steady improvement in his first international per- formance since being injured last year, finishing with a 98kg snatch and 135kg clean and jerk. Anton Micallef (-85kg) managed a 100kg snatch and 120kg clean and jerk and fi- nally Andy Grech (-85kg) with an 89kg and 108kg clean and jerk. The Maltese team finished in 4th position with Serbia winning the overall trophy, followed by Italy and Slovenia. The teams were accompanied by coach Kurt Camilleri and referee Rodienne Balzan. The Ljubljana Open tour- nament was also underway at the same meet with Com- monwealth qualified athletes Yazmin Zammit Stevens (-69kg) and Kieran Mifsud (105kg+) both participat- ing. Yazmin finished with a personal best and national record snatch of 81kg and a 99kg clean and jerk, finish- ing with a national record total of 180kg. Kieran Mifsud also managed a personal best and two national records in snatch of 132kg in juniors and in seniors. In clean and jerk he finished with a 151kg. The decision to keep Mifsud's clean and jerk attempts low was made after he was feeling a slight pain in his knee. In fact, he only went on to make his first attempt and retired from the competition after that. Both Zammit Stevens and Mifsud finished on the podium with individual silver medals for their excellent per- formance.