THE LOST GOLD
We’ll do our best for the country
Despite all her feats and brilliance, there is still an important hardware missing in Hidilyn Diaz’s impressive collection of accolades — a Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medal.
That’s what the three-time Olympian will try to accomplish as she plunges into action in the women’s -55kg weightlifting competition today at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
The SEA Games gold has been elusive to Diaz.
She was just 16 years old when she made her first international competition as she saw action in the 24th SEA Games in Nakhon Ratchasima.
Proving to be raw and inexperienced, Diaz fell prey to Wandee Kameaim of Thailand and Nguyen Thi Yen of Vietnam to settle for bronze medal.
The following year, she made her Olympic debut as Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas Monico Puentevella endorsed her to be the country’s wildcard entry in the Summer Games in Beijing.
Then, she had a meltdown in the Laos biennial meet in 2009 before settling for the silver in the 2011 edition in Palembang behind Rattikan Jaroenrattanatarakoon of Thailand.
Diaz retained her silver medal in the Naypyitaw SEA Games in 2013 behind another Thai in Sukanya Srisurat before the sport was scratched in the 2015 Games in Singapore and the women’s category was dropped in the 2017 edition in Kuala Lumpur.
In between, Diaz made her presence felt in the international arena as she won the gold medal in the Asian Championships and Asian Games as well as the silver medal in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.
Still, the idea of winning the gold medal in the prestigious biennial meet thrills her.
And there’s no better place to win it but right in front of her family and friends.
“It’s my personal goal to finally win the gold medal. This is the only tournament I haven’t won so far,” said Diaz, who was at the sidelines in the first day of weightlifting hostilities Sunday.
“At the same time, it is one step towards my goal of advancing to the Tokyo Olympics because the SEA Games is a silver level qualifier.”
Puentevella said Diaz has a golden chance to win it.
Aside from coming in great shape due to the support of her Chinese mentor Kaiwen Gao and the army of personnel deployed by the Philippine Sports Commission to support her, Diaz also has luck on her side after the Thailand Weightlifting Federation called for its self-imposed ban in the international arena after being involved in doping incident.
The Thais are the biggest threats to our weightlifting dominance. They stand as Hidilyn’s biggest tormentors.
Although the Thais tried to return to the biennial meet saying that their ban doesn’t cover the SEA Games in which they will send their “clean” junior and cadet lifters, the International Weightlifting Federation stressed that they have to stand by their word and observe their self-imposed ban.
“The Thais are the biggest threats to our weightlifting dominance. They stand as Hidilyn’s biggest tormentors,” Puentevella said.
“But in this year’s SEA Games, the Thais would not be around. And it’s a perfect opportunity for Hidilyn to win her first SEA Games gold medal.”
Weightlifting offers six of the 10 gold medals in women’s division.
“I’m nervous but I will do my best because we’re the host of the SEA Games,” Diaz said.
“We’re hosting it here in the Philippines and I feel proud that my friends, family and fans will be able to watch me here at home. We’ll do our best for the country.”