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Hidilyn Diaz Ends Two Decades of Philippine Olympic Medal Drought with Silver via Weightlifting

Every Olympics event, we sent our chosen one’s to represent our country. Along with them is our pride, hopes and prayers that one of them might bring home the long waited medal, might it be Bronze, Silver or of course, the very-long-waited GOLD.

The Rio Olympics is still on going as of this writing, and one great Filipino athlete have given the Philippines a great honor, a Silver Medal.

Hidilyn Diaz finished with a lift of 200kg at the women’s 53kg category in weightlifting on Monday, August 8, 2016.

Since Onyok Velasco’s triumph at the 1996 games in Atlanta, we sure have hoped a Gold on that one, well, Diaz’ silver medal is the country’s first.

“Ginawa ko yung best para sa country," Diaz told CNN Philippines. "Yun lang talaga yung goal, tapos mag medal. Bronze lang talaga yung aim namin ng coach ko.”

Initially thought to be a two-horse race between Chinese-Taipei’s Hsu Shu-Ching and China’s Li Yajun, the rest of the field was seen to be competing for the bronze.

It looked that way after Hsu and Li took a commanding lead after the snatch portion of the competition with scores of 101kg and 100kg, respectively.

“Nadiscourage ako pero sabi ng coach ko na wala na kaming magagawa. Sa clean and jerk ako bumawi,” Diaz said.

While Latvia’s Rebeka Kohn led the rest of the pack with a score of 90kg.



In the clean and jerk portion, Diaz cleared 111kg on her first attempt, forcing Korea’s Yoon Jin Hee to successfully manage at least 111kg of her own.

Yoon scored 111kg on her third attempt, but the Filipina chalked up 112kg on her second attempt to secure at least a bronze medal for the country.

The Chinese-Taipei national logged in 112kg on the scoreboard with her first lift, placing her in pole position to notch the gold.



China’s Li attempted to lift 123kg on her first attempt, but failed due to a hyperextended left elbow. The failure proved to be the pivotal moment of the competition as Li could not complete any of her attempts in the clean and jerk portion.

Li’s inability to successfully lift 123kg once pushed Diaz up the podium to a silver medal finish, while Korea’s Yoon ended up with the bronze.

For a beat of history, the Philippines first sent athletes to compete at the Olympic Games in 1924, making it the first country to compete and win a medal in Southeast Asia. The nation has competed at every Summer Olympic Games since then, except when they participated in the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics. Filipino athletes have also competed at the Winter Olympic Games on four different occasions since 1972.

The Philippines first participated at the Winter Olympic Games in 1972, when it sent two alpine skiers.

Filipino athletes have won a total of ten Olympic medals (as of 2016 Summer Olympics), with boxing as the top medal-producing sport.

The National Olympic Committee of the Philippines is the Philippine Olympic Committee, founded in 1911 and recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1929.

For the record, Philippines’ tally of Olympic medals are as follows:

Bronze  1928  Teófilo Yldefonso    Netherlands Amsterdam Swimming
Bronze  1932  Simeon Toribio    United States Los Angeles Men's high jump
Bronze  1932  José Villanueva    United States Los Angeles Boxing
Bronze  1932  Teófilo Yldefonso    United States Los Angeles Swimming
Bronze  1936  Miguel White    Germany Berlin 400 metres hurdles
Silver    1964  Anthony Villanueva    Japan Tokyo         Boxing
Bronze  1988  Leopoldo Serantes    South Korea Seoul Boxing
Bronze  1992  Roel Velasco    Spain Barcelona Boxing
Silver    1996  Mansueto Velasco    United States Atlanta Boxing
Silver  2016  Hidilyn Diaz   Brazil Rio de Janeiro Weightlifting

We have a lot of great Filipino athletes who can compete on a global level. They all need our support and compassion!

“Mabuhay ang Atletang Filipino!!! Mabuhay ka Hidilyn Diaz!!!”

Cheerio!


This post first appeared on Zurcaled World, please read the originial post: here

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Hidilyn Diaz Ends Two Decades of Philippine Olympic Medal Drought with Silver via Weightlifting

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