MWA President Jesmond Caruana needs no introduction to anyone who is in the weightlifting world. While appointed as MWA President ? years ago, along with several other prestigious positions within the EWF, CWF and EUWC, he wears several hats within the MWA; including national team coach and event coordinator. His main mission for the past few years has been to not only focus on flourishing existing talent but more importantly, build a strong foundation for Malta’s weightlifting future with a youth team.
From organizing street weightlifting exhibitions across local towns, creating and sharing content surrounding the sport across all social media platforms, and school visits showcasing the senior teams, his efforts can now be seen with the strongest youth weightlifting team on the island has ever had.
16 year old Tenishia Thornton is one of the products of these efforts, and has been giving world class performances on some of the biggest stages in weightlifting. After winning Malta’s first ever weightlifting world cup medal in 2020 where she finished 2nd in the snatch and 3rd in total, she came back for glory ne won all 3 gold medals at the 2022 IWF world youth championships in Mexico.
STOPPING AT NOTHING. TENISHIA’S FEARLESS APPROACH BREAKS BARRIERS AND MAKES HISTORY FOR MALTA.
Tenishia Thornton started weightlifting when she was only 12 years old after being absolutely fascinated by the sport when watching her father lift weights during CrossFit. A self-declared perfectionist, Tenishia showed early on that she would stop at nothing until she mastered the technique under the watchful eye of Caruana.
Fast forward a few years and the dynamic duo were seen competing at the biggest IWF weightlifting Championships, winning world titles in the process.
In addition to European Youth Championship and European Union Championship medals, Tenishia made history by winning Malta’s first ever World Medal at the 2020 IWF online World Cup.. She finished with a massive 71kg snatch and 84kg clean and jerk in the 49kg category, earning a silver medal in the snatch and a bronze in the total. With the réalisation that world championship medals are definitely in reach, Jesmond and Tenishia worked tirelessly towards making a historic moment happen. In 2022, Tenishia swept the 55kg category and won all 3 gold medals with a 78kg snatch, 100kg clean and jerk and 178kg total. Her massive lifts and constant hard work earned her the honorable title of Youth World Champion. This massive result came only a few weeks after her 180kg finish in the 55kg category at the IWF world junior championships in Greece. Here, she finished in 6th place overall as the youngest competitor in the field.
LIFTING THE WEIGHT OF 2022 ON HER SHOULDERS; HOW THIS YEAR IS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT FOR THORNTON.
Being the final year as a youth athlete, Thornton hopes to add more medals to her name EWF European Championships. While this and the previous IWF world youth championships are considered the main events for her this year, Thornton will also be competing, EWF European Juniors and U23, and , in case that wasn’t impressive enough, she’s also managed to qualify for the 2022 Senior Commonwealth Games in the 49kg, 55kg and 59kg weight categories.
Chipping away kilo by kilo, training after her long days at school every day, Tenishia is a true inspiration to all youth around the world.
Jesmond Caruana, MWA President and EWF EB member