Diaz hauls silver, bronze medals at 2017 Worlds

(Editor's note: This article was originally published on December 1, 2017 on thefilipinoconnection.net and is used with permission from the website.)

ADELAIDE, Australia – Hidilyn Diaz struggled in the snatch but came back quite strong in the clean and jerk to bag silver and bronze medals in the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships.

The Filipina Olympic Games silver medalist and the rest of the field lifting in the US city of Anaheim in California also witnessed a new world champion in Sopita Tanasan of Thailand. Unfortunately, reigning Olympic champion Hsu-Shu Ching of Chinese-Taipei decided not to finish the competition after finishing second in the snatch.

Diaz was second in the clean and jerk with 113kg, the same total posted by bronze winner Kristina Shermetova of Turkmenistan. Diaz hoisted 113kg on her second attempt, as opposed to Shermetova on her third attempt.

Tanasan swept all three gold medals in the weight class: snatch, 96kg; clean and jerk, 114kg; total: 210kg.

Shermetova, a newbie in the weight class, was second overall with 204kg while Diaz came in third with 199kg.

A missed first attempt at 83kg and another botched attempt at 90kg cost Diaz in the snatch. She ended up with 86kg made on her second attempt. Diaz’s snatch lift landed her in sixth place.

At the clean and jerk, Diaz had to sidestep in her first and second attempts (110 and 113kg, respectively) in order to heave up the barbell.

The revelation of the weight class is 53kg returnee Tanasan. She showed power in all three snatch attempts and in her first two clean and jerk hoists — all standing still after the hoist, smiling radiantly.

The interesting thing with the 23-year-old Tanasan was that she dropped in weight — from 53 to 48kg — last year. That tactic made Tanasan win the gold medal in the 48kg weight class at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

Diaz moved down to 53 from her original class of 58kg, the latter weight class that landed the Zamboanga City native to the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

Tanasan was fourth in the total lift and snatch, and fifth in the clean and jerk, at the 2015 Championships held in another American city, Houston.

Diaz’s 86kg lift in the snatch is a far cry from her personal best of 96kg which she lifted in Houston. Diaz’s personal best in the snatch is 96kg (hoisted twice in 2015 at the Asian and World Championships); in the clean and jerk Diaz’s best is 118kg (posted at the 2016 Asian Championships).

The heaviest and earliest valid lift in three given attempts, at either the snatch or clean and jerk, is the recorded lift. But a lifter who misses all three attempts at either the snatch or clean or jerk bombs out of the competition for the medals in the overall lift.

Unlike the Olympic Games that awards one gold medal only for the overall lift in a weight class, the World Championships awards three sets of medals: snatch, clean and jerk, and total lift.

The 2017 World Weightlifting Championships was marred by the banning of nine countries, including powerhouse China, from the competition. This is due to discovered cases of doping since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

In the 53kg class, missing is 2015 World Championships silver medalist Chen Xiaoting.

The two medals from Diaz bring her World Championships medal count to five after her three bronze medals in Houston.

The Philippines now has won seven medals at the annual World Weightlifting Championships, counting the snatch bronze medal Nestor Colonia (men’s 56kg class) won in Houston.