Hidilyn out of Team Philippine in Malaysia SEA Games

MANILA, Philippines – Rio Olympics silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz will likely be reduced to cheerleader for Team Philippines in next year’s Southeast Asian Games as only the men’s event of weightlifting will be staged in Malaysia.

Diaz won a silver the last time weightlifting was held in 2013 and with women’s weightlifting out of the picture in 2017 it’s now up to Rio Olympian Nestor Colonia to carry the fight for the Phl contingent.

Philippine Weightlifting Association president Monico Puentevella, however, is not losing hope that the women’s event can still be reinserted.

“I’ll ask the SEA Games weightlifting group to move for the reconsideration of this decision by the federation (scrapping women’s weightlifting),” Puentevella, also the honorary life president of the Asian Weightlifting Federation, told The STAR.

“I’m sure we can get the majority and there’s still time,” he added, hoping to get support from traditional powers like Thailand and Vietnam to join the cause.

Meanwhile, Diaz and Colonia as well as youth lifter Dessa delos Santos landed inside the Top 10 of their respective divisions in the International Weightlifting Federation’s world rankings list for 2016.

Diaz, who broke Phl’s medal drought in the Olympics, ranked No. 5 in women’s 53kg division with her personal best lift of 208kgs at the Asian Championships.

For his part, Colonia’s 268-kg effort also in Tashkent put him at No. 8 in the men’s 58kg play.

Delos Santos made the seventh best lift in the world at 172kgs in the youth women’s 53kg competitions, achieving the feat in the Asian Youth and Junior Championships in Tokyo.

Three other young Phl lifters hovered just outside the Top 10 with John Paolo Rivera at No. 13 in youth men’s 50kg (179kgs in the World Youth Championship in Penang) and Rosegie Ramos at 11th (120kgs) and Loenida Mabarijan 12th (117 kgs) both in youth women’s 44kg category.