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Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo is ending her bid to qualify for the Paris Olympics. —REUTERS
Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo, the Philippines’ unmatched Olympics heroine, will not be going to the Paris 2024 Video games.
However shed no tear for the best Filipino weightlifter of all time, at the same time as Father Time denied her a fifth straight look—which she doggedly chased within the final two years—within the Olympics.
“I like this sport, I don’t wish to cease,” Diaz-Naranjo informed the Worldwide Weightlifting Federation (IWF). “However what I’ve to do now could be take relaxation and take into consideration the priorities in my life. At the moment wasn’t my day. Paris was to not be.”
READ: Hidilyn Diaz misses Paris Olympics lower
Her legacy will stay intact, and it is going to be as much as inheritor obvious Elreen Ann Ando to hold the struggle for Staff Philippines within the 59-kilogram class.
“We now have to pay tribute to Hidi. She’s our solely Olympic gold medalist and [she] impressed plenty of children to select up the game of weightlifting,’’ stated Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas president Monico Puentevella after it was made official that Diaz-Naranjo wouldn’t be going to the world’s vogue capital after ending eleventh within the IWF World Cup in Phuket, Thailand, on Wednesday.
Diaz-Naranjo ended the nation’s look ahead to an Olympic gold—a drought that lasted practically a century—when she dominated the 55-kg class of ladies’s weightlifting three years in the past in Tokyo, utilizing an equal mixture of energy and smarts to nook Chinese language world document holder Liao Qiuyun.
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FILE– Phillippines’ Diaz Hidilyn in motion throughout the Ladies’s 59Kg within the Asian Video games 2023. Group A REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
The win turned her into an on the spot icon of Philippine sports activities, hailed in all places at the same time as she was showered with bonuses and incentives that made her a millionaire many occasions over.
“I’ve given so much to this sport and it’s given so much to me,” she stated.
Greater than that, she reinstalled a rustic’s confidence and impressed a number of athletes to go after sporting glory within the greatest world phases.
READ: Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo proves she is greater than an inspirational determine
“They stated this was inconceivable. I believed this was inconceivable. However the Filipino can do it. We simply should imagine.” Diaz-Naranjo stated after her Tokyo win.
However an encore within the French capital became an extended shot at finest when her weight class was abolished for the Paris Video games, an offshoot of the continued conflict between the game’s controversy-stricken worldwide federation and the Worldwide Olympic Committee.
Diaz-Naranjo was pressured to maneuver to a heavier weight class the place she crossed paths with Ando, who completed seventh in Tokyo within the ladies’s 64-kg class.
Along with her division additionally scuttled, Ando moved down in weight to hitch Diaz-Naranjo at 59 kg.
READ: Hidilyn Diaz begins transition to increased 59-kg division
The 25-year-old Ando just about assured herself of one other Video games look after ending seventh in Thailand, with the highest 10 lifters in every class progressing to Paris. Diaz-Naranjo completed eleventh and even when she completed a notch increased, she nonetheless must neglect Paris because the Video games enable just one athlete from every nation to compete.
Ando lifted a private better of 228 kg within the complete following a 100 within the snatch and 128 within the clear and jerk, giving her the within monitor in assembly the qualifying commonplace of their weight class.
Opened doorways
The 33-year-old Diaz-Naranjo, who likewise received a silver within the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Video games, was forward by a kilogram from Ando after the snatch, however couldn’t carry 127 in two makes an attempt within the clear and jerk.
Diaz-Naranjo had a complete carry of 222 following a 99 within the snatch and 123 within the clear and jerk.
Diaz-Naranjo bowed out of rivalry and can possible head into retirement having opened the doorways for tons of of younger lifters everywhere in the nation, together with Rosegie Ramos, Vanessa Sarno and Ando, to call just a few.
Ando will probably be in Paris together with early qualifiers EJ Obiena (pole vault), gymnasts Carlos Yulo and Aleah Finnegan, boxers Nesthy Petecio, Eumir Marcial and Aira Villegas and fellow weightlifters John Febuar Ceniza and Ramos.
The 20-year-old Sarno sees motion within the ladies’s 71 kg on Sunday and if the previous Asian champion may preserve her fifth general rating, she may be part of them within the French capital as properly.
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