by Waylon Galvez
Rio Olympics veteran Hidilyn Diaz boosted her bid for a return trip to the Olympics by bagging three silvers in the 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championships Monday evening in Ningbo, China.
The 28-year-old Diaz captured silver medals in snatch (94) and clean and jerk (115), which gave her a total of 209 in the -55kg event.
Chinese Liao Qiuyun topped the event with 224 while Muattar Nabieva of Uzbekistan settled for third (204).
The event served as one of the Tokyo Games qualifiers and Diaz was happy with her showing, saying: “I’m not yet qualified, but I was able to earn points.”
The event was Diaz’s first after nearly two months of training camp at the Wushishan Sports Training Center also in China, and her first competition since she won the gold medal in the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.
A silver medalist in the 2016 Rio Olympics, Diaz will train again in China two months before the World Weightlifting Championship on Sept. 18 to 27 in Pattaya City, Thailand.
Other Filipino weightlifters in the Asian Championship are Mary Diaz (45kg), Rosegie Ramos (49kg), Margaret Colonia (59kg), Elreen Anne Ando (64kg) and Kristel Macrohon (71kg) in the women’s division, and Jan Pabuar (55kg), Nestor Colonia (61kg), Jeff Garcia (67kg) and Jones Buda (81kg) in the men’s category.
