INTENSE rivalries rose among selected women’s weightlifters eyeing Olympic slots while several national records were broken during the national team tryouts for the 51st Asian Weightlifting Championships and 32nd Vietnam Southeast Asian Games last week at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The first clash was between Zamboanga City’s Rosegie Ramos and Rizal’s Lovely Inan, who tangled in the women’s 49kg division, a weight class included in the revised Olympic events for the 2024 Paris Summer Games.
After losing to her nemesis twice in the past, Ramos finally bested Inan, taking the snatch and total lift gold medals by hoisting 83 kilos and 184 kilos, respectively, while Inan won the gold in the clean-and-jerk, lifting 101 kilos in the tournament supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.
A protégé of Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Hidylin Diaz-Naranjo and coach Julius Naranjo, Ramos surpassed her national record in the snatch by three kilos while Inan raised her own national mark in the clean-and-jerk by a kilo.
The second clash was between Kristel Macrohon and Vanessa Sarno in the women’s 71kg category, also one of the five weight divisions in the quadrennial sportsfest that will be held in the French capital next year.
Also a native of Zamboanga City, Macrohon, 26, bagged the gold in the weight class in the 2019 SEA Games in the country while Sarno, 19, a native of Tagbilaran, Bohol, emerged champion in the same division in last year’s Vietnam Games.
A gold medalist in the 2020 Asian championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in the same weight class, Sarno proved the stronger performer this time, sweeping the snatch (105), clean-and-jerk (130) and total lifts (235), respectively.
Macrohon played second fiddle to her younger teammate, hoisting 103, 120 and 223 kilos, respectively, in the three events.
Sarno also improved her national mark in the snatch by one kilo.
Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas president Monico Puentevella awarded P5,000 each to the record breakers.
A faceoff between Diaz and fellow Tokyo Olympian Elreen Ann Ando of Cebu in the women’s 59kg division did not take place as the former continued to take a break after bagging three gold medals in the world championships in Bogota, Colombia last December in her swan song in the 55kg class.
Diaz and Ando are on a collision course for the country’s lone spot in the 59kg category for the 2024 Paris Summer Games.
Both of them are listed in the same weight class for the Asian weightlifting championships scheduled May 3 to 13 in Jinju City, South Korea.
