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XI. Mediterranean Cup, Ljubljana SLO

The 11th edition of Mediterranean Cup was held last weekend in the capital city of Slovenia, Ljubljana.
More then 30 years passed since the last international competition was hosted by the Slovenian Federation and it proved to be a big test especially for the President, Damjan Canzek, and General Secretary, Slavko Laljek. The Opening ceremony showed a nice demonstration of home support from the young delegates as the President of the NOC, Mr. Bogdan Gabrovec, and Vice Mayor of Ljubljana Mr. Dejan Crnek, were invited to say a few words before the event. Mr. Attila Adamfi, IWF General Director was also present as honorable guest to show the support for Slovenian weightlifting.

On Friday we had an opportunity to hear how to mentally prepare an athlete for the competition by an expert on that field and author of bestseller “Atleta Vincente” Mr. Massimo Binelli from Italy.

On Saturday twelve countries participated with 48 athletes. That’s the highest number of participants ever for Mediterranean Cup. They were placed into five groups so the
competition was ongoing for the whole Saturday from 9 am to 7 pm. Competition was right on schedule with no delays and great atmosphere was created by the crowd who cheered loudly for lifters that gave their best. At the end we had a strong competition between Italy and Serbia for the first place. Serbia won for only 10 Sinclair points in front of Italy and third place belonged to Slovenian team.

“It was the best organized competition in my whole career as athlete and coach!” said Darov Konstantine, Tunisian head coach.

“We are waiting with anticipation for next year Mediterranean Games in Tarragona, Spain and we hope to continue to compete in that high level of international competition that Slovenian Weightlifting Federation has set here in Ljubljana!” was the last encouraging words for all delegations from president of Mediterranean Weightlifting Confederation Mr. Maurizio Lo Buono.

Source: Damjan Čanžek, President of Slovenian Federation