17-Year-Old Tenishia Thornton Wins Best Individual Female At Weightlifting European Championships
17-year-old weightlifter Tenishia Thornton won the best individual female title at the Weightlifting European Small Nation Championships which were held this weekend in Limassol.
Overall, Malta placed third in the competition, and the mixed team settled on bringing back home bronze.
The combined points of Thornton, Roberta Tabone, Anton Micallef, Shaun Ciantar, and Rylee Borg placed the mixed team in third place overall, only one point behind 2nd place finishers from Iceland, and four points behind first-place finishers from Cyprus.
The Maltese mixed team totaled 1832 points and finished just behind the team from Iceland who finished with 1833 points. The winner of the championships, Cyprus, finished with a grand total of 1836 points.
The female individual and female team categories saw the top of the podium with Thornton winning the best individual female title with 255 points, Iceland in 2nd with 229 points, and Roberta Tabone finishing in 3rd with 226 points.
The combination of their scores also landed them the best female team title overall.
17-year-old Thornton has had a stellar year and does not seem to be slowing down in the slightest. She managed a personal best and national record snatch of 83kg in the 59kg category, and paired that up with a 101kg clean and jerk.
Her 184kg total was also a new national record for the youth athlete, who is currently gearing up for the IWF World Weightlifting Championships set to take place in Colombia in December.
Tabone, who has most recently competed at the Commonwealth Games with great success, managed an 83kg snatch and 105kg clean and jerk in the 71kg category.
16-year-old Borg has also had great improvements this year and continued that success with a 99kg snatch and 125kg clean and jerk in the 73kf category.
Micallef, who competed in the 81kg category, finished his snatch portion with 116kg only 1kg away from his best-ever snatch in this category.
He also went on to finish his clean and jerks with a successful lift at 135kg. Ciantar competed in the 89kg category and managed a snatch of 111kg and a clean and jerk of 133kg.
The Maltese contingent was accompanied by national team coach Jesmond Caruana and assistant coach Rodmar Pulis.
Both Caruana and Thornton will now continue their preparations for the IWF Senior World Championships early in December, while most of the Maltese weightlifting athletes will move their focus onto the National Weightlifting Championships set to take place later this month.
Well done Team Malta!
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