Top Filipina weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz expressed interest to compete in the Vietnam Southeast Asian Games as she confirmed her participation in the national weightlifting trials set in Bacolod.
Diaz, the Philippines’ first and only Olympic gold medalist, said she is on her way to full recovery from COVID-19 infection and expressed excitement to compete in the SEA Games’ qualifier, the date of which is yet to be announced by the Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas.
The 30-year-old weightlifter said that she is again willing to go through the difficult process in attaining her goal of going for a fifth Olympic stint in Paris in 2024.
“Babalik ako dahil gusto ko pa maglaro sa #Paris2024, alam kong ‘di madali itong pinasukan ko pero kakayanin. ‘Di madali mag-qualify sa Olympics and I need to earn it,” Diaz said in the caption for her most recent Facebook video post showing her lifting weights.
Diaz, who won her first SEA Games’ gold in 2019, said she will again rely on her Team HD composed of coach Julius Naranjo, nutritionist Jeaneth Aro and psychologist Karen Katrina Trinidad.
“With their good weightlifting and SC (strength and conditioning) program, nutrition and mental preparation program, I know it’s possible,” she added.
On Jan. 12, Diaz posted on her Instagram that she tested positive for COVID-19, even as she acquired her booster shot a little more than a week ago in Quezon City.
Diaz won the country’s first Olympic gold medal with a dramatic victory in the women’s 55-kg category in Tokyo last year.
But recent changes made by the International Weightlifting Federation in the weight classes for Paris will force Diaz to compete in the next higher weight category.
Among those that were removed was Diaz’s 55-kg category and the next higher weight class after that is the women’s 59-kg category, one of the four holdover events from the Tokyo edition.
This would mean her team should start conditioning her mind and body to lift heavier weights as the record in the 59-kg in Tokyo by gold medal winner Kuo Hsing-Chun of Chinese Taipei was 247 kgs.
Diaz, also the silver medalist in the Rio Olympics in 2016, made a total of 224 kilograms to beat eventual silver medalist Liao Qiuyun of the People’s Republic of China.