BASED on the successful stint of the young Filipino weightlifters in the recent World Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships in Lima, Peru, weightlifting chief Monico Puentevella is bullish about the country’s medal chances in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“You watch out for these young weightlifters because most likely they will be our medal contenders in the Los Angeles Olympics,” said Puentevella yesterday during the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at the PSC conference forum.
“In the World Youth and Junior last month, China won five gold medals and the Philippines won the same golds, too. That’s why in the Los Angeles Olympics, it will be a fight between China and the Philippines,” said the longtime Samahang Weightlifting Pilipinas president confidently.
In the Peru meet, Zamboanga City’s Jay-R Colonia of Zamboang delivered two gold medals (clean and jerk, and total) plus a silver (snatch) in the men’s youth 49kg division.
A niece of Tokyo Olympic Gold medalist Hidylin Diaz-Naranjo, Alexsandra Ann Diaz likewise won golds in women’s 45kg snatch and total and the bronze in the clean and jerk, while Cebuano Althea Bacaro added one more gold in the women’s 40kg category.
Zamboangueña Angeline Colonia won a silver (snatch) and bronze (total) in the junior women’s 45kg class, Puentevella said in the public sports program supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, San Miguel Corp., Milo, Smart/PLDT and gaming portal ArenaPlus.
“I want to see another gold medal in the Olympics,” added Puentevella, who together with coach Patrick Lee, also announced that the SWP will hold its National Open weightlifting meet in Dumaguete City starting this Friday.
The weightlifting chief has been around since the early career of Diaz-Naranjo, who began as a wild card entry in the 2008 Beijing Olympics before finally scoring a golden breakthrough for the country in the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games, on top of a silver medal in the 2016 Rio Olympiad.
He also thanked Education Secretary Sonny Angara, who played basketball with the former Bacolold lawmaker while they were congressmen, for including weightlifting as a demo sport in the just-concluded 65th Palarong Pambansa in Laoag, Ilocos Norte.
“We have been lobbying for the inclusion of weightlifting in the Palaro for the past 20 years so we would like to thank Secretary Angara for finally including it as a demo sport in the last edition in Ilocos Norte,” noted Puentevella, who was hopeful that it becomes a regular medal sport in the school-based competition if not next year then in 2027.
