ANOTHER Olympic gold medal potential appears to be coming out of Barangay Mampang—Rosegie Ramos.
Ramos, only 19, is training alongside the Olympic and world champion, who happens to be a neighbor in that now famous community in Zamboanga City and also a distant relative.
“Idol,” Ramos says of Diaz-Naranjo.
Ramos is with Diaz-Naranjo at the Power and Grace Gym—home to US and Canada Olympic and world champions in Suwanee, Georgia.
They’ve been training there since March 8 and are coming home for a brief rest before proceeding to Tokyo for another 17-day training camp.
“I’m also hoping to get Olympic points and qualify for the Summer Games,” said Ramos, who, like her idol, is skipping the Cambodia 32nd Southeast Asian Games in favor of the Asian championships also in May in Jinju, South Korea.
Ramos has all the raw ingredients to be Olympic and world champion someday—she won gold medals at the Asian Youth and Junior Championships in Tashkent and a bronze at the Hanoi SEA Games last year.
Interestingly, Ramos, who’s competing in the 49-kg class, is also diminutive like Diaz-Naranjo—she’s an inch short of five feet.
Ramos has all the raw ingredients to be Olympic and world champion someday—she won gold medals at the Asian Youth and Junior Championships in Tashkent and a bronze at the Hanoi SEA Games last year.
Ramos said she’s full of enthusiasm to follow the Team HD template.
“Just like all other aspiring weightlifters, I’m also hoping to give my parents, my little sisters and brothers a good life and help them,” said Ramos, whose younger sister Rose Jean won’t be in Cambodia but in Jinju.
Rose Jean Ramos, 17, is also a rising star with one gold medal also in Tashkent in the girls’ 45 kgs class and two more golds at the world youth championships in Leon, Mexico, last June. She clinched bronze in the Asian championships in Bahrain last July.
Diaz-Naranjo and her husband-coach Julius Naranjo had an eye on Ramos and brought her to their private training camp in Jala-jala, Rizal.
“I won’t let the opportunity slip away—training beside the Olympic and world champion is a true blessing,” Ramos said. “I’m so thankful and proud to become part of Team HD.”
Ramos admitted that she gets exhausted in training but seeing her idol persistently doing her routine almost tirelessly, she just couldn’t take a break.
“I can’t leave training while the champ’s still in the gym,” she said. “Ate Hidilyn inspires me to train hard and be smart.”
Ramos also has a 13-year-old sister Joanne and brothers—Kelvin, 8, and Kevin, 6. Her dad Jerry Boy works as a construction hand while her mom Anna Rose takes care of the family at home.
“I’m really motivated that she [Diaz-Naranjo] gave me an opportunity to join her in training,” she said.