The Philippine Sports Commission is reiterating its support for the effort of 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
This was after her three-gold medal finish at the 2020 Weightlifting World Cup in Rome, Italy on Tuesday.
The said win gave Diaz a fighting chance to qualify at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, which will be held from July 24 to August 9.
The Philippine weightlifting superstar topped the women’s 55-kilogram division after she lifted 93 kilograms in the snatch, 119 kilograms in clean and jerk for a total lift of 212 kilograms.
Diaz overcame Ukrainian Kamila Konotop (196kg) and Nouha Landoulsi of Tunisia (194kg), which settled for a silver and a bronze medal, respectively.
“We are supporting her in her efforts to qualify for the Olympics. She is one of those athletes on whom we are anchoring our dreams for Olympic gold. Congratulations Hidilyn!” PSC Chairman William Ramirez said.
“We are very proud of her. We expected no less because we see her training and we know she can,” said the agency chief who expressed his confidence in the Zamboanga lass.
With Diaz’s latest feat, she now ranks no. 4 in the world women’s 55kg class, which gives her a good placing to qualify for the Olympiad for the 4th straight time.
Only the top 8 weightlifters in each division will have an outright berth at the 2020 Olympiad.
After Roma 2020, Diaz has now less than three months to prepare for her last Olympic qualifying tournament—the 2020 IWF Asian Championships, which will be held in Kazakhstan on April 16 to 25.