Diaz-Naranjo seeks PH’s first gold medal in world weightlifting tilt in 52 years
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 04 Dec 2022
Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo.
Don’t look now, but did you know that when the first Filipino Olympic gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo plunges into action in the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships starting Monday (Tuesday in Manila), she will be seeking an end to the Philippines’ 52-year gold medal drought in the event?
And that she will, too, be trying to improve on the three bronze medals she romped off during the 2015 edition of the worlds in Houston, Texas that earned for her a slot in the 2021 Games of the Olympics where she gifted the country its first gold medal after waiting in vain for 97 years to realize?
Well, Diaz-Naranjo, as well as her eight teammates that make Team Philippines in this year’s worlds in Bogota, will be seeking to duplicate where another pint-sized Salvador del Rosario succeeded in the XXIVth staging of the Championship held in Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio on September 12, 1970.
First Filipino world weightlifting champ Salvador del Rosario. From EDDIE ALINEA'S files.
Del Rosario, in that edition of the world tourney, stashed away with top honors in the clean and jerk discipline in the flyweight division.
The young barely 20-year-old nephew of Rodrigo del Rosario, who in the 1952 Olympic Games n Helsinki, equaled the Games’ standard in the press in ending up fourth in his sport.
The younger Del Rosario, son of Rodrigo’s brother Valentin, likewise, exceeded the existing Asian record by 5 kilograms in that gold medal performance no other Filipino strongman was able to match in the succeeding staging of the worlds in the years that followed.
And it looks like the only second Filipino athlete to have brought home multiple Olympic medals in the quadrennial conclave outside of swimmer Teofilo Yldefonso, has got what it takes to match, if not succeed in outshining Salvador del Rosario’s heroics in Columbus.
This after reports were that she now is the top seed in the women’s 55-kilogram discipline after the name of her co-favorite Zuilfiya Chinshanlo of Kazakhstan was nowhere to be found in the list of starters in the event.
And with the now-retired Chinese Liao Quiyun, who finished second to Diaz–Naranjo in the Tokyo Games, also absent, there’s no more reasons why The Filipina could miss the gold medal this time.
This year’s worlds is set December 5-16.
Other members of Team Philippines who left last Friday for Bogota are Rio de Janeiro Olympian Nestor Colonia (55 kgs), John Febuar Ceniza (61 kgs) and Dave Lloyd Pacaldo (67 kgs), who are entered in the men’s competitions.
Also in the team are Asian champion Vanessa Sarno and Kristel Macrohon in the 71 kgs class, Rosegie Ramos and Lovely Inan in the 49 kgs category and Elreen Ann Ando in the 59 kgs event of the women’ side.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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