VANESSA SARNO competed as a 17-year-old in the women’s seniors division and bagged herself two gold medals on Wednesday at the Asian Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent—her first overseas competition.
Those two golds—plus a silver—outshone Hidilyn Diaz, who finished fourth in her weight class but good enough to send her to a fourth-straight Olympics appearance in Tokyo.
“I didn’t lose hope, I just lifted the best I could. And I focused very well,” said Sarno,a 10th-grader at the Bohol Institute of Technology in Tagbilaran. “My coaches strategized very well. I am so happy to capture my first-ever gold here in a seniors tournament.”
Sarno lifted 128 kgs in the clean and jerk of the women’s 71-kg category, winning the gold by seven kilos over Turkmenistan’s Gulnabat Kadyrova. She bagged her second gold medal with a total lift of 229 kgs, relegating Kadyrova (223 kgs) and Kazakhstan’s Yekaterina Bykova (213 kgs) down the podium.
She lifted 101 kgs in the snatch but settled for the silver behind Kadyrova, losing by a mere kilo.
“We didn’t expect her to win the gold because the Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan lifters are very strong and their totals are high,” Gary Hortelano, one of two coaches who accompanied the Filipino lifters in the Uzbek capital, said.
The next big thing?
“She is very strong, she is the first Filipina to lift 128 kgs in the clean and jerk,” Diaz, who cheered her teammates from the stands, said. “She needs to dream high and continue her training”
Diaz was herself an unassuming 17-year-old when she got a wild card entry in her first Olympics in Beijing in 2008. That paved the way for the Zamboangena to return four years later in London and, finally, clinched a silver medal in Rio 2016.
The other Filipino coach, Nick Jaluag, sees a bright future for Sarno.
“We are so happy that she peaked during the tournament. Her condition looks great,” Jaluag said. “She’s our future.”
Next stop for Sarno is the 31st Southeast Asian Games in November.
“It’s my dream to win a gold in the SEA Games but I have to work very, very hard,” she said.
Sarno won two gold medals and one silver in the Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championship in North Korea in October 2019.
The International Weightlifting Federation allows athletes aged 17 and under to compete in the seniors division. But if they do so, they could no longer revert to the juniors category.
Erleen Ando clinched two silvers and a bronze in the women’s 64-kg class and Mary Flor Diaz grabbed three silvers in the 45 kgs category earlier in the tournament.
Kristel Macrohon of Zamboanga City was competing in the women’s 76-kg class late Thursday. John Dexter Tabequi of Cebu will compete on Friday in the men’s 96-kg class.
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