MANILA – Drawing power from one other banner yr, the Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas can be offered with a particular honor in the course of the San Miguel Corporation-Philippine Sportswriters Association (SMC-PSA) Annual Awards Night.
The federation as soon as extra goes to be the recipient of the National Sports Association (NSA) of the Year award from the nation’s oldest media group following its profitable campaigns within the Southeast Asian area and different worldwide competitions anchored by Olympic gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz.
The 32-year-old Diaz stamped her class final October within the 88th IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bogota, Colombia with a three-gold sweep of the ladies’s 55kg class, in a becoming comply with as much as final yr’s historic milestone when she gave the nation its ever Olympic gold in the course of the Tokyo Games.
For her back-to-back golden triumphs, the satisfaction of Zamboanga City would be the recipient of the PSA Athlete of the Year award for the second straight time.
Can the SWP be far behind?
In the wake of Diaz’s Olympic feat, the federation was likewise named NSA of the Year in 2021 together with the Association of Boxing Alliances within the Philippines (ABAP), a particular award it’s going to obtain by its lonesome within the March 6 gala night time on the grand ballroom of the Diamond Hotel.
The PSA awards night time is offered by the Philippine Sports Commission and Cignal TV, with in a position help from the Philippine Olympic Committee, Mayor Abraham ‘Bambol’ Tolentino, MILO, Smart, MVP Sports Foundation, Rain or Shine, 1Pacman Rep. Mikee Romero, Philippine Basketball Association, OKBet, ICTSI, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.
The weightlifting affiliation led by president Monico Puentevella, nevertheless, is extra than simply Diaz.
Although Diaz efficiently retained her gold within the ladies’s 55kg within the Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam, Vanessa Sarno started to make her presence felt as a power to reckon within the sport.
The 18-year-old lass blew the competitors away within the SEA Games with a dominant victory within the ladies’s 71kg occasion, the place she set new data of 104kg within the snatch, 135kg within the clear and jerk, and 239kg complete elevate.
Diaz and Sarno accounted for the 2 gold medals the nation bagged within the biennial meet.
Two months later in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Sarno anchored the Philippine group’s marketing campaign within the Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships.
The Bohol native scored one other sweep of the junior ladies’s 71kg class by topping the snatch (100kg), clear and jerk (130kg), and complete elevate (230kg) to spearhead the 15 golds gained by the Filipino lifters. (PNA)
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Olympic gold medalist weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz (File picture)