ASIAN champion Vanessa Sarno is feeling the pressure now that she’s left to carry the load in the absence of Olympics gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz at the International Weightlifting Federation World Championships in Tashkent next month.
“The expectations are higher now after I won the Asian championships gold medal,” Sarno told BusinessMirror over the phone from her training gym in her native Poblacion Dauis in Bohol. “It pressures me a bit as the tournament [worlds] gets closer.”
The world championships, set December 7 to 17, will be without Diaz, who decided to forego her bid for the only gold medal missing from her collection because of her lack of training and preparation.
Diaz was preoccupied with commercial endorsements, TV and guest appearances and was hardly at the gym since she won the Olympic mint last July 26 up to her departure for Malacca, Malaysia, over a week ago.
“I’ll be competing at the world level now,” Sarno, only 18, said. “How about if I don’t make it? But as an athlete, I will do my very best and learn from it.”
Sarno won the women’s -71 kgs gold medal at the Asian championships Tashkent also hosted last April. The Grade 11 student at the Bohol Institute of Technology also bagged a silver in the same tournament.
Sarno admitted it’s sad not to have their “Ate Hidilyn” with them in Tashkent.
“It’s a little bit sad because Ate Hidilyn really inspires and motivates us after seeing her journey to win the first-ever Olympic gold,” she said. “We’ll just go out there and compete with our very best.”
She shifted her training program to high gear starting this week under Coach Nicholas Jaluag.
“After returning from the Asian championships last April, I trained only once a day…now it’s twice a day,” said Sarno, who added that despite the rigid preparation, she still gets to gorge on her favorite food.
“I can eat any food, but I love fish, especially paksiw,” she said. Fish? She prefers tamarong (blackfin scad).
Joining Sarno in Tashkent are Tokyo Olympian Elreen Ann Ando, Diaz’s cousin, Asian championships silver medalist Mary Flor Diaz (-45 kgs), Ellen Rose Perez (-49 kgs), 2019 SEA gold medalist Kristel Macrohon (-76 kgs), Margaret Colonia (-64 kgs), Fernando Agadin (-55 kgs), John Febuar Ceniza (-61 kgs), Dave Lloyd Pacaldo (-67 kgs) and John Dexter Tabique (-96 kgs).
They will be coached by Christopher Bureros, Richard Augusto and Roberto Colonia.
Ando, who turned only 23 last November 1, will now be competing in the women’s 59-kg category, down from the 64-kg class where she vied in the Tokyo Olympics.
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