Hidilyn Diaz won’t be alone in competing for a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics, with numerous qualifying competitions already under way.
The 32-year-old Diaz will seek out a slot in a higher weight category with Cebuana Olympian Elreen Ando, while two other female lifters and group of newcomers in the men’s division, will vie for slots in a series of qualifiers for the Olympics later this year.
Diaz, who won the country’s first Olympic gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, won’t be seeing action in the 55-kg category, which has been scrapped by organizers.
Instead, she and Ando will dispute the lone Olympic seat for the Philippines in the 59-kg class of the Asian qualifiers in Jeju, South Korea, from May 3 to 13.
“You’ll never know. But we will fight for the slots. And only one will represent the country, between Hidilyn and Ando,” said Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas chief Monico Puentevella after the SWP recently earned the National Sports Association of the Year honors during the PSA Awards Night at the Diamond Hotel.
“We can’t have two of them in the same division. So, we will just see what happens in Korea,” added Puentevella.
In Paris, the 55-kg class has been removed after the International Weightlifting Federation made changes to the calendar, with the women’s side now having the 49kg, 59kg, 71kg, 81kg and over-81kg categories.
In the men’s division, competitions will be in the 61kg, 73kg, 89kg, 102kg and over-102kg.
Last month, Ando topped the women’s 59-kilogram category of the SWP’s 2023 Southeast Asian Games qualifying tournament.
The University of Cebu standout posted a record-setting 125-kilogram lift in the clean and jerk to eclipse the national record of 123kg in her debut in the 59kg women’s division.
Ando earlier competed in the Tokyo Olympics, finishing seventh in the 64-kg division.
Earlier last year, Ando came home with a silver medal in the Hanoi SEA Games.
In total, 120 athletes will compete in the Paris 2024 weightlifting competition, which is a drop from 196 in Tokyo and a further drop from the 260, who competed in the London 2012 and Rio 2016 games.
To be eligible for Paris, all athletes must compete in the 2023 IWF World Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from September 2 to 17, and the 2024 IWF World Cup in Phuket, Thailand from April 2 to 11, with Diaz and Sando expected to be in both.
Other qualifiers slated late this year are in Tunis, Tunisia, the Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands from November 20 to 24, the 2023 IWF Grand Prix I in Havana, Cuba from June 2 to 12, and the 2023 IWF Grand Prix II in Doha, Qatar in early December.