Three months after getting back to training, Olympic silver medallist Hidilyn Diaz is slowly regaining her fine form.
She came up with her heaviest lift during training on Thursday afternoon at the gym inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
The 26-year old Diaz heaved 110 kgs in the clean and jerk.
Diaz said has not done this since she won the silver medal in the 53-kg class of the 2016 Rio Olympics weightlifting event.
Her lift was 2 kgs short of the 112 kg. that would have allowed her to pull even with Taiwanese Hsu Shu-Ching.
Hsu eventually became the gold medal winner at that time.
“Nakita ko na ang progress ng training ko. Maganda na,” Diaz told this writer during the launch of the Manila Standard’s digital edition at the I’M Hotel in Makati.
It was her biggest lift for the day, and sapped her energy for the rest of the afternoon.
With the 2017 Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur is now out of her plans, Diaz will focus her preparations on two other top tier events this year.
Diaz is set to join the weightlifting meet in the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Turkmenistan this September, and the World Championship this November in Anaheim, California.
To do so, she needs to lose weight.
She said she is currently at least six kilos overweight, and Diaz needs to get back in shape by August.
It will be Diaz’s first in the multi-event Asian meet in Turkmenistan.
On the other hand, it will be her third time to join the tournament organized by the International Weightlifting Federation in the United States.
Participating in the SEA Games is already out of the question since organizers have deleted many women’s events from the calendar.
She is now training again with coach Tony Agustin, who handled her, before Dondon Aldanete took over to help train her for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Hidilyn is back in school, taking up business management after she accepted a scholarship offer from the College of St. Benilde.