TOKYO Olympics gold medalist Hidylin Diaz and newly-minted Cambodia Southeast Asian Games champion Elreen Ann Ando are bracing for another showdown for a national team slot in the National Open weightlifting championships set July 10 to 16 in Bacolod, Negros Occidental.
“Both Hidy (Diaz’s nickname) and Elreen will be contesting the slot in the women’s 59kg class and whoever wins will be going to the Hangzhou Asian Games,” Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas president Monico Puentevella said.
“The National Open will be our national team tryouts for the Asian Games, and whoever wins in each weight category will be the country’s representative to Hangzhou,” he added.
Diaz, 32, and Ando, 24, are also vying for the lone ticket to the Paris Olympic Games, with the former gaining an edge after earning ranking points in ruling the women’s 55kg class at the world meet in Bogota, Colombia last December and placing fourth in the Asian tilt in Jinju, South Korea last month.
Ando, who bombed out in the world and Asian meets came back strong, securing the gold medal in the same weight category in the Cambodia SEA Games, in the process setting a new SEA Games record of 216-kilo total lift.
Both lifters are also poised for another clash before the Hangzhou Asian Games when they see action in the World Weightlifting Championships, another Olympic qualifying competition, scheduled Sept. 2 to 17 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Puentevella revealed that another interesting faceoff would involve Rizal’s Lovely Inan and Zamboanga City’s Rosegie Ramos, a protégé of Diaz and husband-coach Julius, in the women’s 49kg category.
“Lovely and Rosegie have been perennial rivals so this should be an interesting clash,” the weightlifting honcho said.
Ramos and Inan finished ninth and 10t, respectively, in the last Asian meet with identical total lifts of 183 kilos, with Ramos gaining the higher spot via the countback.
Inan, however, copped the silver medal in the same weight class in the Cambodia Games with a total lift of 178 kilos.
