Diaz lifts first Games gold for Philippines

JAKARTA: Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz won the Philippines’ first gold medal of the 2018 Asian Games and “proud Indonesian” Eko Yuli Irawan triumphed for the hosts on a pulsating day of action yesterday.

Diaz, the silver medallist from the Rio Olympics, pipped Turk- menistan’s Kristina Shermetova by just one kilogramme to win the women’s 53kg class.

Earlier Irawan, also a silver medallist in Rio, dominated the men’s 62kg competition to take Indonesia’s first weightlifting gold of the Games in front of President Joko Widodo.

Veteran Irawan, 29, has won multiple major medals in a senior weightlifting career stretching back to his bronze at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, but had never before set foot on the top step of the podium.

“I’m a proud Indonesian and pleased for the country to win gold,” Irawan told after receiving his medal from president Widodo. and 115kg in the clean and jerk for a 207kg total that proved just enough to edge out Shermetova (93kg snatch, 113kg clean and jerk).

Thailand’s Khambao Surodchana took the bronze on 201kg (86kg, 115kg).

Irawan’s almost flawless performance of strength and control was capped by a 170kg lift in the clean and jerk which raised the roof at the Jakarta International Expo.

Vietnam’s Trinh van Vinh needed a mammoth personal best of 179kg with the final lift of the competition to snatch gold, but he crumpled in the attempt.

Trinh consoled himself with silver, and the bronze went to Uzbekistan’s Adkhamjon Ergashev.