TOKYO Olympic gold medalist Hidylin Diaz-Naranjo gets her first crack at a gold in the women’s 55kg division of the 30th International Weightlifting Federation World Championships today (Wednesday night in South America) at the Gran Carpa Americas Corferias in Bogota, Colombia.
Diaz, who sees action at 7 p.m. (8 a.m. Thursday in Manila), has never won a gold in her five previous appearances in the world meet, her best performance a silver in the clean-and-jerk event in the women’s 53kg class of the competition in Anaheim, California five years ago.
She is seeded second behind top favorite and hometown bet Rosalba Morales, a gold medalist in the South American Games last October, while up-and-coming American lifter Shayla Moore Hutchins, who bagged two golds in the Pan American weightlifting meet in Bogota last July, is seeded third, according to a story posted on the Olympic.com website.
Diaz, who arrived in the Colombian capital last Monday (Tuesday in Manila), is fresh from a training camp at the Power and Grace Performance Gym in Suwanee, Georgia and is keen on doing well in the tournament serving as a qualifying meet for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
She was in distinguished company at the training camp that included Canadian and fellow Tokyo Olympic Games gold medalist Maude Charron, who ruled the 76kg division, and Americans Katherine Vibert, a silver medalist in the 76kg class in Tokyo, and Jourdan dela Cruz, a two-time Pan American champion.
This will likely be the Zamboanga City pride’s last competition at the world level in the 55kg category before moving up to the 59kg division. The 55kg class has been dropped from the roster of events in Paris.
In earlier results, veteran Nestor Colonia finished seventh in the men’s 55kg out of 15 entries with lift of 110 kilos in the snatch, 133 kilos in the clean-and-jerk and a total lift of 243 kilos.
Seeing action tomorrow (Thursday in South America) is Tokyo Olympic veteran Elreen Ann Ando in the 59kg division.
