Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/934206
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 31 JANUARY 2018 Sport 23 WEIGHTLIFTING Answers to the MaltaToday crossword will be published next Wednesday WEATHER: Partly cloudy becoming rather cloudy overnight with the possibility of isolated showers VISIBILITY: Good WIND: Northwest force 4 becoming West force 3 to 4 and backing West Southwest overnight 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. PARTLY CLOUDY 18 º C /10 º C UV INDEX: 2 Today's Weather Chess Sudoku Pursuits Across Across 1. Full of stones (5) 3. Skin of the upper part of the head (5) 6. Child's toy (4) 7. A principal beam (6) 9. Insect stage (5) 10. To the inside of (4) 11. Floor covering (3) 13. Woody plant (4) 15. Misuse (5) 18. Desire for food (6) 19. 12 inches (4) 20. Roofing items (5) 21. Coming after (5) Down 1. Bicycle seat (6) 2. Oilcan (5) 3. Curved sword (8) 4. Examine account books (5) 5. Free from contamination (4) 8. Having no name (8) 12. Communication (6) 14. Pertaining to the kidneys (5) 16. German submarine (1-4) 17. Converse (4) cxd5 a4 Bb4# THE first national weightlifting meeting kicked off an eventful year for the Malta Weightlift- ing Association. The 1st Malta Ranking competition served as a great platform for the next generation of lifters to prove themselves. There were multi- ple outstanding performances over the weekend including a number of youngsters from 10 to 16 years of age who competed for the first time. There were two kids groups with all the beginners giving an excellent performance and good lifts across the board. The best performance out of the ca- dets came from Rylee Borg who lifted all personal best lifts with a 40kg snatch and 49kg clean and jerk breaking records in his respective category. Twelve year old Tenishia Thornton gave an outstanding performance in her first competition as a youth athlete. She finished with a 31kg snatch and a 43kg clean and jerk ,breaking seven national re- cords in the -44kg category. The best youth performance came from Malta's leading U17 athlete, Shelby Mangion Vassallo. The Youth Olym- pian to be, also finished with personal best lifts across the board breaking eight new na- tional records. Shelby lifted a 60kg snatch and 71kg clean and jerk. Elisia Scicluna (-90kg) gave Malta's leading female senior athlete, Yazmin Zam- mit Stevens(-69kg), a run for the lead with an outstanding performance. Scicluna finished with an 8kg total improvement over her last best result from last November, clearly giving Zammit Stevens a tough chal- lenge to keep up. Zammit Ste- vens, just recovered from minor injuries, managed to finish with a respectable 75kg snatch and 95kg clean and jerk, only edg- ing out Scicluna by a 1kg total. Elisia Scicluna's promising per- formance ended with a 76kg snatch and 93kg clean and jerk, seven national records in her respective category, and also showed she is on the right track to give qualifying for the Medi- terranean Games a shot. Both Zammit Stevens and Scicluna will be travelling to Slovenia for three weeks for a training camp leading up to their next interna- tional meet in Italy. In what could only be de- scribed as the most entertain- ing group of the day, Vlad Bal- dachhino, Rodmar Pulis and Matthew Camilleri all went head to head to try finish on top of a very high level Men's group. Vlad Baldacchino (-94kg) started off the strongest with a 122kg snatch, followed by Mat- thew Camilleri (-85kg) with a 108kg snatch and Rodmar Pulis (-85kg) with 105kg. The Clean and jerks proved to be a closer race with Rodmar Pulis fin- ishing on top with a 141kg lift, followed by Baldacchino with 140kg and Camilleri with 133kg. Overall, by Sinclair points, Bal- dacchino topped the group giv- ing all new personal best lifts. Rodmar Pulis finished in sec- ond, which is a promising per- formance by the weightlifting veteran who is slowly reaching his best performances pre-inju- ry. Matthew Camilleri finished in third showing again and again that he is one of the most consistent lifters. Both athletes now are to prepare for the Euro- pean small nations competition that is to take place in Iceland. All three showed that they are on the right track to qualify for the Mediterranean Games. Malta weightlifting would like to congratulate all the lift- ers and coaches for their top efforts over the weekend. A massive thank you goes out to all our event volunteers who worked tirelessly to make this competition a success. Malta Weightlifting Association starts 2018 season Vlad Baldacchino