Tenishia Thornton competed in the European Weightlifting Senior Championships in Yerevan, Armenia, on Monday.
This competition was of great importance since it is an Olympic qualification event for Paris 2024.
Thornton, 17, took part in the 59kg category and produced a good showing.
She opened her snatch with 82kg, moving to 84kg but she missed her third attempt at 86kg. This result put her in second place in the snatch category.
In the Clean & Jerk, Thornton started strongly with 101kg, moving to 105kg but after a strong clean she could not conclude her jerk after she had a cramp.
Unfortunately, this affected also her third and final attempt. Thornton managed to lift a total of 185kg which put her in fourth place.
Despite being the youngest athlete in the group, Thornton managed to place higher than athletes from Ireland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Finland, and Israel.
Thornton will take a short break from international competition to focus on her academic studies while continuing her training programme.
The young lifter’s next international competitions are the Commonwealth Championships in India and the European Junior Championships in Romania. Both competitions are scheduled to be held in July,
In a statement, the Malta Weightlifting Association said that this competition could not be possible without the support of the Maltese Olympic Committee and SportMalta.
