Olympian Elreen Ando delivered the Philippines’ first medal in weightlifting in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Monday night, October 2.

Ando lifted 96 kilograms in the snatch and 126kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 222kg — good for third place in the women’s 64-kg weight class.

She was well ahead of the fourth placer, Kazakhstan’s Karina Goricheva, who lifted a combined 210kg in the final at the Xiaoshan Sports Center Gymnasium.

But Ando was also far behind North Korea’s Rim Unsim and China’s Pei Xinyi, who won gold and silver, respectively.

Rim set a trifecta of Asian Games records by lifting 111kg in the snatch and 140kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 251kg.

Her total was comfortably ahead of Pei, who lifted a combined 234kg (104kg in snatch and 130kg in clean and jerk).

Ando’s bronze was the Philippines’ eighth from the Asiad, bringing the country’s total to ten medals.

Her achievement came hours after Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz finished fourth in the women’s 59kg weight class.

For Ando, it was also a bounce-back performance after a poor stint in the Asian championships earlier this year.

“Nalungkot talaga ako noong nag-zero ako sa Asian championships. Nawala ang lungkot at napalitan ng saya dahil sa medalya na ito,” Ando said.

“Gusto kong bigyan ng reward at birthday gift ang sarili ko dahil matagal ko na gustong magkabahay,” Ando, who is now set to receive a bonus of P500,000 from the Philippine Sports Commission, said.

She temporarily switched to 64kg in the Asiad and will revert to 59kg in an effort to continue her Olympic qualification bid for next year’s Paris Olympics.

She will clash head on with Diaz in the same weight category in a pair of world cup tournaments in Doha, Qatar in December and in Thailand in February 2024. (ABS-CBN News)