Weightlifter Diaz gets 1st Philippines gold, no China sweep

TOKYO (AP) — Hidilyn Diaz became the first Olympic gold medalist from the Philippines on Monday, winning the women’s 55-kilogram category to stop China’s bid for a perfect Tokyo Games in weightlifting.

At her fourth Olympic Games, Diaz overtook Liao Qiuyun of China on her last lift in the clean and jerk to win with a total 224 kilograms. That was one more than Liao.

The Philippines has competed at every edition of the Summer Olympics since 1924 — except for a boycott of the Moscow Games in 1980 — with three silver and seven bronze medals before Diaz’s win. She previously won a silver medal in 2016, which was at the time her country’s first appearance on an Olympic podium for 20 years.

China had won all three events so far in the weightlifting competition and was hoping to sweep the gold medals in the eight competitions its athletes have entered. No country can enter more than four men’s and four women’s events. Liao came into the competition as the world record holder with a total 227kg.

Zulfiya Chinshanlo of Kazakhstan took bronze with 213kg. Chinshanlo won what was then the 53-kilogram class at the 2012 London Olympics but was stripped of her gold medal after a positive test for two banned steroids found when her sample was retested in 2016.

Uzbekistan’s Muattar Nabieva led the competition with a snatch lift of 98kg but was 9kg behind Chinshanlo on the clean and jerk and placed fourth, missing the podium by one kilogram.

-Associated Press-

Asian Games: Weightlifter sets eternal record, two Koreas in tears

Iran's Sohrab Moradi set a weightlifting world record that could last forever on Saturday as tearful North and South Korean athletes combined to win a highly symbolic medal at the Asian Games.

Olympic champion Moradi, who served a two-year doping ban from 2013, hoisted a 189 kilogram snatch en route to victory in the men's 94 kilograms class, breaking weightlifting's longest standing world record set in 1999.

Moradi's lift could stay on the record books in perpetuity as after the Games in Indonesia, all the weight classes will change beginning with November's world championships.

"I feel very happy to know that my name will always remain on all the 94 kg world records," beamed the Iranian.

Moradi's triumph for the ages came on a day when the Unified Korea team, testament to this year's marked improvement in Korean ties, won an emotional dragon boating bronze medal. 

The North and South Korean athletes were in tears as they sung "Arirang", a traditional Korean folk song, to celebrate winning their medal.

Both Korean teams marched together at the opening ceremony and they have also joined forces in rowing and women's basketball at the regional Olympics.

"I was deeply emotional," said South Korean canoeist Eun Jeong-byun. "We're divided and forbidden from seeing each other but we both know the same song and speak the same language."

- Cat's amazing -

Controversy marred the start of the athletics competition when Japanese marathon winner Hiroto Inoue was accused of pushing Bahrain's Elhassan Elabbassi and denying him gold.

Both athletes had complaints rejected by race officials after they made contact during a thrilling sprint finish, which Inoue won by a fraction of a second.

"The number one (leader) pushed me," said Elabbassi. "I would have won."

Later, a cat strayed onto the track during the women's 100m hurdles heats, after China's Su Bingtian, joint holder of Asia's men's 100m record, eased into the semis.

China continued its dominance of the women's hammer, claiming both gold and silver for the fifth consecutive Asian Games -- a record stretching back to the sport's introduction.

And Daria Maslova won Kyrgyzstan's first ever track medal at the regional Olympics, storming home in the women's 10,000m with a time of 32:07.23.

In tennis, Uzbekistan's world number 75 Denis Istomin beat China's Wu Yibing in three sets to win men's singles gold -- before jumping on a plane for a 27-hour journey to the US Open in New York.

Istomin, 31, came from behind to beat the reigning US Open boys' champion 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/2) in Palembang. He plays his first-round match at the season's final Grand Slam on Monday.

"I think it shows it means a lot to me and to my country. I always represent my country, never lose an opportunity," Istomin said.

World champion Kento Momota was sent crashing out of the men's badminton by Anthony Ginting as the home favorite raised the roof at the Jakarta arena.

At the end of day seven, China had extended their lead on the medals table, with 72 golds to Japan's 34 and 25 for South Korea.

About 17,000 athletes and officials are taking part in the 18th Asian Games, the biggest sports event in Indonesia's history.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Asian Games: What will gold winner Hidilyn Diaz do with P6-M prize money?

JAKARTA—Six million pesos.

That’s the amount of money that Hidilyn Diaz is set to receive after she won a gold medal in the 2018 Asian Games weightlifting competition in Jakarta on Tuesday

The Rio Olympics silver medalist made history once more for the country when she lifted a combined 207 kilograms in the women’s 53-kg division, edging competitors from Turkmenistan and Thailand.

“Siyempre, masayang-masaya ako,” said Diaz after her emotional triumph. "’Yung training na nagawa ko, may resulta. ‘Yung outcome, maganda.”

Diaz, 27, is set to receive a total of P6 million in incentives: P2 million from the Philippine Olympic Committee, P2 million from the Philippine Sports Commission through the Republic Act 10699, P1 million from the Siklab Pilipinas Sports Foundation, and another P1 million from Philippine ambassador to Indonesia Lee Hiong Wee.

The ambassador made the commitment on Monday night.

“Wow,” Diaz said when informed of her windfall. “Ano'ng gagawin ko?”

“Siguro, business,” she said. “Kailangan na matuto sa pag-manage ng pera. Invest.”

Diaz added that she will give part of her incentives to her mother and to her coaches, as well as her church. She memorably used her prize money from the 2016 Olympic Games to build a weightlifting gym in her hometown in Zamboanga City.

After the Asian Games, Diaz intends to go back to school at College of Saint Benilde. She will begin her buildup to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in November, when she competes in the World Weightlifting Championships in Turkmenistan.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hidilyn Diaz wins PH's first gold

The Philippines' Hidilyn Diaz Philippines competes at the 2018 Asian Games Women's Weightlifting, 53kg Division, in Jakarta, Indonesia on Tuesday. 

The Olympic silver medalist went on to win the first gold for the country in the Asian Games. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Surprise in Philippines at first medal in 20 years

MANILA, Philippines -- Hidilyn Diaz sprung a major surprise in the Philippines by winning a weightlifting silver medal in Rio -- the country's first Olympic medal for 20 years, officials said Monday.

Sports analysts in the Philippines had not expected the 1.54-metre (5ft 1/2in) tall Diaz to bag a medal at the 2016 Games after coming up empty in 2008 and 2012 games.

"We had high hopes with other sports. So (Diaz's medal) is a surprise. A lot of people didn't expect she would take a medal," said Ronel Abrenica, executive-director of the Philippine Sports Commission.

But Abrenica said he noticed something from the 25-year-old, who became the first woman from the Philippines ever to win an Olympic medal.


"I was watching her before. I saw her sincerity and determination. You could see it in the way she talks. She was determined to win. She had the fire in the belly," he told AFP.

"Before she set off (for Rio), she told me, 'at least, I can get a bronze'. So this (silver) is a bonus," said Abrenica.

Diaz took the silver in the 53kg class, the first ever by a Filipino weightlifter, Abrenica said.

It was also the first Olympic medal for the Southeast Asian nation since boxer Mansueto Velasco took a silver in the 1996 games.

The two Filipino boxers in the 13-member contingent were considered to have the best chances, as boxers had won five of the country's previous nine Olympic medals, sports analysts had said.

President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman Martin Andanar, congratulated Diaz, saying "hers is (an inspiring story) about overcoming shyness but for an inspired nation, her road to Rio is a journey of grit, patience and determination."

He also said that Diaz is the country's first Olympic medallist from Duterte's home southern region of Mindanao.

Diaz's victory also has monetary benefits as Philippine law provides a five million peso ($107,000) prize to Olympic silver medallists, Abrenica said.

He added that the sports commission, which is in charge of funding the country's sports programmes, was also working with "private partners" to get Diaz additional benefits.

Like other Filipino sports heroes, such as boxing hero Manny Pacquiao, Diaz can also likely count on lucrative commercial offers once she returns home, he added.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

N. Korean lifter breaks record as competition begins

INCHEON, South Korea - North Korean pocket rocket Om Yun Chol broke his own weightlifting world record at the Asian Games on Saturday, while hosts South Korea matched powerhouse China's gold medal haul with five on the first day of competition.

Less than 24 hours after a vibrant opening ceremony marked the launch of the 17th Asiad, Om hoisted more than three times his own bodyweight with a superhuman lift of 170kg in the clean and jerk.

Standing just 1.52m tall (5ft) and weighing 56kg (123lbs), Om's mighty lift came near the end of a day in which 18 gold medals were split between eight countries.

China's Zhang Mengyuan won two gold medals, in the women's 10 meters air pistol event and in the team event.

Some 9,500 athletes from 45 countries are competing at the Games, the world's second-biggest multi-sport event after the summer Olympics, with 439 gold medals in 36 sports up for grabs.

And while there are 14 more days of competition to go, it is hard to imagine a gold medal being celebrated with such joyous abandon as Om displayed at the Moonlight Festival garden venue.

The London Olympic champion let out a roar of triumph, raced to celebrate with his coach, did a lap of honour draped in the North Korean flag, then posed on the podium with a razor-sharp salute as the national anthem played in his honour.

The scene would not have pleased the conservative groups who had demanded Incheon organizers take down North Korean flags flying around the city in the lead-up to the Games, but the crowd's reaction to Om's win was one of delight, not distrust.

Tensions between North and South Korea are high and the two states are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

"I am very happy," the 22-year-old Om told reporters. "Whenever our people face difficulty, we come together and make it through the rough time."

South Korean fans also had good reason to cheer their own athletes as they took five gold medals -- in wushu, fencing, cycling and equestrian.

Lee Ha-sung picked up the hosts' first gold in the men's wushu changquan and his coach, Park Chan-dae, said Lee had accomplished something he never could.

"He has achieved my dream for me," said Park. "Although I won gold six times in the Wushu World Championships, I only got a silver medal at the Asian Games."

Lee's combination of whirling kicks, athletic leaps and intricate hand movements earned him a score of 9.71 points to take gold in the martial arts discipline, ahead of Macau's Jia Rui (9.69) and Japan's Daisuke Ichikizaki (9.67).

HORROR FALL

South Korean equestrian Kim Kyun-sub won a gold medal in the dressage team event and paid tribute to his late uncle, who died in a horror fall at the Asian Games in Doha eight years ago.

Kim Hyung-chil was crushed when his horse threw him over a fence then landed on him during the eventing competition in Qatar.

"My uncle taught me a lot," Kim said on Saturday after his ride on Dark Secret. "Whenever I perform in the field, I am reminded of my uncle teaching me and demanding many things. I also thought a lot about him while performing."

India, perennial underachievers at the Asian and Olympic Games, already have a gold medal to crow about after Jitu Rai won the men's 50m pistol event.

While his closest opponent, Vietnam's Nguyen Hoang Phuong, cracked under pressure, Rai kept a cool head and a steady hand to shoot straight and take the title.

There were two golds apiece for Mongolia and Kazakhstan, while Japan, who are determined to beat fierce rivals South Korea to second place in the medal standings behind China, could manage only one, in judo.

The Japanese will hope Ryosuke Irie makes a splash on Sunday when the highly-anticipated swimming competition begins at Munhak Park Tae-hwan Aquatics Center.

Irie will be the one to beat in the men's 100m backstroke, while fans will also get to see the first instalment of local hero's Park Tae-hwan's freestyle duels with fellow Olympic champion Sun Yang of China.

(Editing by Julian Linden)

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