BY Waylon Galvez
Manny V. Pangilinan, chairman of the MVP Sports Foundation, said yesterday the gold medal win of weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz in the 2020 Roma World Cup on Tuesday could just be start of something big for the country’s top Olympic hopeful for the year.
“Congratulations to Hidilyn Diaz and Team HD for winning another high level International tournament,” Pangilinan said. “With each victory, we see her grow both in confidence in herself and performance. She is paving her way towards, what we all hope to be, a historic Tokyo 2020 Olympics.”
Equally elated was Philippine Sports Commission Chairman Butch Ramirez, who reiterated the all-out support of the government’s sports agency for her drive to secure a berth to the Tokyo Olympics.
“We are very proud of her. We expected no less because we see her training and we know she can,” said the agency chief who expressed his confidence in the Zamboanga lass.
Taking full advantage of the absence of Chinese entries, the Rio silver medal winner topped her pet event to boost her bid for another shot at glory.
Diaz, 28, dominated the 55kg women’s competition as she tallied 212kgs – 93kgs in snatch and 119kgs in the clean and jerk.
She received a total of three gold medals for ruling the snatch, clean and jerk, and the 55kg division of the tournament, thus boosting her bid of earning a ticket to the Tokyo Games this July.
“Ang Chinese po kasi naka-six competitions na sila pero balita ko may laro sila sa Chinese weightlifting competitions for selection nila sa Olympics,” said Diaz. “Pero naka lalaro sila sa Asian Championship knowing China gusto nila No. 1 sila. Kami basta ang gusto ng #TeamHD mag-prepare kami for Tokyo 2020,” said Diaz.
Diaz still needs to compete in the Asian Championship in Kazakhstan in April to be able to complete the required number of OQTs and earn a spot in the Tokyo Olympics.
“Nasa rank five na ko sa Tokyo qualifying pero kailangan ko pa maglaro sa Asian Championship para sa requirement ng Olympics. May three months to prepare pa kami for the Asian Championship,” she said.
Kamila Konotop of Ukraine placed second with a total lift of 196kgs while Nouha Landoulsi of Tunisia settled for third with 194kgs.
Diaz twice bagged the bronze medal in the world championships, in 2017 in Anaheim, USA, and in 2019 in Pattaya, Thailand. She won the gold medal in the Asian Games in Indonesia last year.
Prior to the tournament, Diaz said that her target is to finish in the top three to improve her spot in the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) world ranking.
She is currently at No. 5 with 3.632.0672.
The frontrunners are Chinese weightlifters Jiang Huihua (4,667.8878), Liao Qiuyun (4,288.9622), Zhang Wanqiong (4,212.6639) and Li Yajun (4,099.0223) – all of them did not show up in the event.
