Up to 4 Filipino weightlifters eyed for Paris Olympics

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is eyeing to qualify not just one but three or four Filipino weightlifters to next year’s Paris Olympics.

Apart from Tokyo Games gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo, the Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas is doing all it can to help Elreen Ando, Vanessa Sarno and Kristel Macrohon earn berths to quadrennial event.

Diaz-Naranjo already had a good head start after she hauled three gold medals in last month’s World Championships in Bogota, Colombia, the first of 10 Olympic qualifying meets sanctioned by the International Weightlifting Federation.

Ando, a Tokyo Olympian, Sarno, an Asian and Southeast Asian champion, and Macrohon, a SEA Games gold winner, did not medal but earned precious Olympic qualifying points by just competing in the Colombian capital.

“We’re looking at three to four lifters to qualify to Paris. Hidilyn, Ando, Sarno and Macrohon are the lifters to watch,” SWP president Monico Puentevella recently told The STAR.

For one to make the Paris cut, an aspirant must see action in at least five more IWF-sanctioned tilts and hope they amass enough points in catapulting them up the ladder of the pecking order in their respective weight classes.

That is why Puentevella is pleading to the newly appointed Philippine Sports Commission officials headed by Chairman Richard Bachmann to help them in their quest for more glory.

The former PSC commissioner from Bacolod vowed to bring home the bacon again after Diaz-Naranjo’s historic feat in Tokyo.

“Of the 10 or more qualifying events for Paris, we need four more and we hope the new PSC officials will continue this kind of support,” said Puentevella. “And we promise you, we shall deliver again.”