Hidilyn can’t wait to lift in ’19 SEAG

KUALA LUMPUR – Olympic silver medal winner Hidilyn Diaz loves the Southeast Asian Games atmosphere and she hopes to perform and win before Filipino fans when the biennial event is staged next in Manila in 2019.

“SEA Games is fun because it’s a regional event and there are many participants. Its ambiance is different. I like it,” said Diaz on the sidelines of the weightlifting competition in the 29th SEA Games.

She’s denied of what could have been a fourth SEAG participation after the KL Games organizers scrapped the women’s weightlifting categories.

Team Phl was left with one bet in Nestor Colonia who finished fifth in 56kg as he’s hampered by a knee injury suffered in training a month before the SEAG competition.

Diaz, a spectator here, will be back in action in the coming Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) next month in Turkmenistan.

She’s also set to compete in the World Weightlifting Championships in the US late this year then in the Asian Games in Palembang next year.

She said she’s still working to regain the form that she enjoyed in ending the country’s 20-year Olympic medal drought in Rio, Brazil last year.

“I’d ballooned to 61kg when I’m competing in 53kg,” said Diaz, hopeful though of making the weight in time with the help of her nutritionist.

At 26, Diaz is also looking forward to one last shot at the Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2020.

Weightlifting chief Monico Puentevella said they would tap Diaz’s services as coach upon her retirement as a player.

In the meantime, Diaz is enjoying the SEAG fever.

“I can feel the excitement here, though I’m not a competitor. And I wonder when I would finally win a gold for our country. Hopefully, at home in 2019,” said Diaz, bronze medalist as a teenage participant in the 2007 SEAG before taking silver in 2011 in Jakarta and in 2013 in Naypyidaw.