By CARLO ANOLIN
The fellow countrymen of Hidilyn Diaz competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics joined her in celebrating the momentous win for the Philippines.
Taking it to social media, Olympians Margielyn Didal of skateboarding, EJ Obiena of pole vault, Eumir Felix Marcial of boxing, Kurt Barbosa of taekwondo, and Remedy Rule of swimming, among others extended their congratulations to their “ate” for bagging the country’s first gold medal in the quadrennial meet.
Diaz made history on Monday, July 26, at the Tokyo International Forum after lifting her way en route to the gold and two Olympic records with a total of 224 kgs.
“[Wala nang intro intro] at drama, congrats champ!” wrote Didal on her Facebook page, sharing a separate post via Instagram story moments after Diaz won the 55kg women’s weightlifting.
Both Diaz and Didal are the 2019 Asian Games and 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalists.
Obiena, for his part, was still in awe of Diaz’s achievement and wrote: “Congratulations po ate!!! Way to go!!! Wow!!! Just wow!!!”
Marcial, who was still on cloud nine, was left “speechless” with Diaz’s win, The two share a tight connection of being members of the Philippine Air Force and coming from the same province of Zamboanga.
Barbosa shared an infographic from a media outlet while Rule took a video of Diaz’s clean and jerk performance.
There are 14 athletes left in Tokyo vying for Olympic medals in their respective sport as Diaz, Didal, Barbosa, rower Cris Nievarez, and shooter Jayson Valdez already made their exits.
