Olympian weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz bags division win in online lifting tourney

Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz has raised her way to the top of the 59kg division in the Eleiko Email International Lifters Tournament, which was held last July 24 and 25.

Diaz lifted a total of 216kgs after submitting 95kgs in snatch and 121 kgs in the clean and jerk categories, according to the full results of the Tournament posted by the Oceania Weightlifting Federation (OWF) in its website on July 31.

The 2016 Rio Olympics Silver medalist ranked ahead of Fatima Yakubu from Australia who had lifted 183kgs, and Johanni Taljaard from South Africa who finished with 188kgs in the division.

Diaz is still in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where she had been training since late February, an online report said.

However, due to the pandemic, all events of international weightlifting were postponed, which includes the Asian Championships where Diaz was set to compete in as her final Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the report added.

Diaz was also quoted: “Hindi ko in-expect na manalo kasi hindi ko kilala mga kalaban ko. Basta para sakin, I need to do my best and to prepare para motivated pa rin ako mag-training towards the Tokyo Olympics (I did not expect to win because I do not know who my competitors are. I just made sure I did my best, prepare, and stay motivated to train for the Tokyo Olympics)."

The online tournament was set up equipment manufacturer Eleiko in partnership with the OWF, in which a total 751 individual lifters from 63 countries entered.

Three hundred fifty-eight entries were from female lifters, the OWF said in a release.

Photo is from the International Weightlifting Federation