Hidilyn Diaz, 2016 Olympic silver medalist, has confirmed her ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Zamboangueña lifter’s fourth consecutive stint in the quadrennial games.
Sunday night, Philippine time, the 30-year-old lifter had a crack at her 6th Olympic qualifier at the Asian Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan where she finished fourth with a 212-kilogram total lift.
Now that she has made it to the Tokyo Summer Games, Diaz recounted the experience as she went through the process.
“Sa weightlifting, need sumali sa 6 tournaments and dapat nasa top 8 ka kada laro. Kukuha rin sila ng one more ranking sa continental championships. Nakapasok ako kasi technically rank 2 na ako. Kasi isa lang, considered sa China. So kaya ako pumunta dito, kailangan ko lang mag-weigh in. Kahit mag-total, then okay na (In weightlifting, you need to join 6 tournaments and make it to the top 8 in each game. They also have to get one more ranking from the continental championships. I got in since technically I already rank second. Only one is considered for China. I had to go here to weigh in. Even if they got the total, I was okay),” Diaz explained.
Diaz said the Asian tilt is a preview of the upcoming competition in the Women’s 55-kilogram category event of the upcoming Olympiad.
After clinching her 4th place performance, Diaz committed not to waste the remaining three months to up her game as she aspires for the gold.
“Nakita ko yung mga kalaban. Naniniwala ako kaya ko, kaso ‘yung sa China, di ko alam sino papadala nila. Pero ‘yung Uzbekistan at ibang countries, kaya ko, pero tingnan natin. Ayoko maging kampante, iba kasi ‘yung sinasabi pag nasa mismong competition ka na (I have seen the competitors. I believe I can do it, but I am not sure who China will send. But as for Uzbekistan and the other countries, I can do it, but let us see. I do not want to be overconfident because it is really different in the actual competition),” Diaz said.
A few days after her latest campaign, Diaz’s camp will be returning to Malaysia to continue training.
Report by Khay Asuncion/JBB-jlo
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