TOKYO Olympic gold medalist Hidylin Diaz-Naranjo will return to the Power and Grace Performance training camp in Lawrenceville, Georgia for two weeks next month to kickstart her preparations in her bid to qualify for her fifth straight Olympic Games in Paris, France next year.
“Babalik po ako sa Power and Grace Performance camp for two weeks in March. For motivation and change of environment po ba,” Diaz said last week during the national team tryouts for two major overseas meets in May that was held at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
“Nandun ‘yung Olympian from Canada na makakalaban ko,” added the Zamboanga pride, referring to Maude Charron, who won a gold medal in the women’s 64kg division at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Diaz, who ruled the women’s 55kg division in Tokyo two years ago, will move up to the 59k class while Charron will go down five kilos to try and qualify and compete in the French capital next year under the revised weight classification of the International Olympic Committee for the sport.
Diaz said she and husband-coach Julius Naranjo want to bring national teammate and fellow Zamboangueña Rose Gie Ramos to train along with her at the famed training camp where she prepared for the world meet in Bogota, Colombia last December.
The stint paid huge dividends as Diaz scored a golden breakthrough, sweeping three mints in the women’s 55kg category in her sixth appearance in the global weightlifting showcase.
“Gusto namin na maka-top three si Rose Gie sa Paris kaya gusto namin ni Julius na makasama siya sa US. Kasi ‘yun naman ang ambisyon ng sinumang atleta, di ba?” Diaz said of Ramos, who is vying in the 49kg category, an event included in the Paris Games.
Diaz reiterated that she is abandoning her bid to compete in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia and the 18th Hangzhou Asian Games because she is focusing on her remaining Olympic qualifying competitions whose schedules are too close to the two international meets.
She said the first qualifier this year is the 51st Asian Weightlifting Championships set May 3 to 13 in Jinju, South Korea, which will be held just before the Cambodia SEA Games in May 5 to 17.
This is also the reason why she is skipping the Hangzhou Asiad, which is slated from Sept. 23 to Oct. 8. The World Weightlifting Championships, also an Olympic qualifier, is set on Sept. 2 to Sept. 17 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“Usually, ang recovery time ko ngayon is about three months so hindi puwedeng magsabay-sabay ang mga competitions ko,” she said.
After the worlds in Riyadh, her next competition will be the IWF Grand Prix meet in Doha, Qatar in December and a compulsory World Cup competition in Phuket, Thailand in April 2024. Both are Olympic qualifying events.
