Hidilyn Diaz among the athletes vying for medals

By Jerome S. Galunan, Jr.

Olympic silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz, alongside up-and-coming Filipino weightlifter Kristel Macrohon, will be competing in the ongoing 2017 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Anaheim, California in the United States, scheduled to run until December 5 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

“We’re actually preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the next year’s Asian Games in Indonesia,” said Philippine Weightlifting Association President Monico Puentevella. “Hopefully, we can send at least three or four lifters to the Olympics and more to the Asian Games.”

Taiwan’s Hsu Shu-ching, who won gold over Diaz in last year’s Summer Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, will be defending her world title.

During the last IWF World Weightlifting Championships, which took place in 2015 in Houston, Texas in the United States, Hsu took gold in the clean and jerk and silver in the snatch events, finishing in first place overall. Diaz, meanwhile, took bronze in both events, finishing in third place./JSG, WDJ