Filipina weightlifters are becoming a force to reckon with on the world stage.
Another lady teen lifter shone brightly for the Philippines as Rose Jean Ramos bagged two gold medals and silver on Monday in the World Youth Championships in Guanajuato, Mexico.
The 16-year-old Zamboanguena sparkled in the women’s 54kg, topping the field in the clean and jerk with a lift of 85 kilograms and in the total weight with 155kg output. She bagged the silver in the snatch with 70kg in the women’s kg category.
Kerlys Montilla of Venezuela and Soumya Sunil Dalvi of India place second and third, respectively, with totals of 153 and 148 kilograms.
Aside from Vannesa Sarno from Bohol, Ramos is also touted to follow in the footsteps of Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz, who also hails from Zamboanga.
Ramos also unleashed a strong performance in last year’s world tournament, where she pocketed the golds in the snatch and total and the silver in clean and jerk.
Meanwhile, Sarno, 19, became an instant hit when she set a new SEA Games’ record in the snatch (104kg), clean and jerk (135kg) and total (239kg) in weightlifting women’s 71-kg category at the recent biennial meet in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Ramos and Sarno are also getting ready for the Asian Youth Weightlifting Championship set in July in Uzbekistan, where they expect heavy opposition from Chinese lifters.
The ultimate goal for Team Philippines is to get more athletes to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.
The prospects are growing with Diaz leading the charge, along with Ramos, Sarno, and Cebuana Elreen Ando, who took the silver medal in women’s weightlifting 64kg silver in the recent Hanoi SEA Games.
