Peralta cops 2 golds in Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships

MANILA, Philippines — Jhodie Peralta snared a pair of gold medals to cap the Philippines’ solid campaign in the Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships in Doha, Qatar recently.

Peralta, who hails from Zamboanga City, sniped two gold in snatch where she lifted 84 kilograms and the total lift where she had 184kg while settling for the silver in the clean and jerk where she had 100kg in the youth women’s 55kg division.

Peralta’s feat capped what had been a strong showing for the Filipinos, who went home with a total of five gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze medals.

The other three mints came from Aldrin Colonia, who is also from Zamboanga, in youth men’s 49kg clean and jerk and total events and Eron Borres, who is from Cebu City, in snatch of the same weight class.

In all, the country wound up third overall in the juniors division where it raked in a 5-7-6 haul behind Vietnam (9-10-6) and India (6-2-4) while ending up fifth in the youth section where it had three silver and four bronzes.

Also accounting for medals were Prince Keil delos Santos, Althea Bacaro, Princess Jay Ann Diaz, Alexsandra Diaz, Rose Jean Ramos, Angeline Colonia and Rosalinda Faustino.

“Every lifter we brought to the Asian Championship won a medal,” said Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas president Monico Puentevella. “This is actually our tryout for the kids to the 2028 LA Olympics, Aldin (Colonia) is one of them.”

Although the country wasn’t able to match the 19-gold haul in the last edition two years ago, it was still good enough for the country eyeing to produce another Olympic gold winner like Tokyo Games gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz.

“As expected, other countries like India, Vietnam and others are catching up. So we have to do more now,” said Puentevella, who thanked the Philippine Sports Commission, Manny V. Pangilinan, Ayala Land, SM, ICTSI and the parents and coaches for their recent successes.