Hidilyn Diaz Wins Silver in SEA Games

PHILIPPINE UPDATED. Olympian Hidilyn Diaz, one of the hot SEA Games gold medal prospect, failed to deliver and settled for the silver medal Sunday afternoon in the 27th Southeast Asian Games in Theinphyu Stadium, Yangon, Myanmar.
 
Diaz lifted a total of 124kg in the women’s 58kg weightlifting, enough only to win the silver.

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The gold medal was won by Sukanya Srisurat from Thailand who lifted a new sea game record total of 225kg, while Bich Lam Thi from Vietnam grabbed the bronze with an overall lift of 201kg.

Srisurat and Diaz tied at 102kg in the snatch event. The Thai weightlifter then lifted only 115kg in her first attempt of the clean and jerk, while Diaz successfully lifted 122kg to take the lead in the first attempt with a total lift of 224kg.

Hoping to take the lead over Diaz, Srisurat then attempted to lift 123kg in her second lift to but failed.

Diaz then attempted to lift 125kg in her second lift, but also failed.

In the last lift of the clean and jerk, Srisurat successfully lifted the 123kg taking her total lift to 225kg, while Diaz again failed to lift the 125kg; thus Diaz ended the game still a total lift of 124kg, 1 kilogram lesser to gold medal winner Srisurat’s 225kg.

Fellow weightlifter Jeffrey Garcia failed to medal in the men’s 62kg event. He lifted a total of 280kg, not enough to upstage Myint Kyi for the bronze (289kg).

Indonesia’s Eko Yuli Irawan took the gold with 304kg lift, while Trung Le Quang taking the silver with his 291kg total lift.

Philippines’ weightlifting campaign in this year’s SEA Games has ended today, delivering only a single medal from their two member team.

SEA Games’ Tougher, Says Commonwealth Champ Azizah

MALAYSIA UPDATED. It is not often that one hears the argument that the level of competition in the SEA Games is tougher than the Commonwealth Games.
 
National weightlifter Azizah Fadzil certainly feels so as she gears up to compete in the women’s 53kg and below at this month’s Myanmar SEA Games.

The petite 22-year-old, who won the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships gold medal in the same category in Penang last week, faces an uphill task to repeat the feat in Myanmar in three weeks’ time.

At the Indonesia Games two years ago, Azizah went into the competition having just recovered from a hamstring injury and could only finish fifth.
With the Commonwealth success and a bronze from the Islamic Solidarity Games in her bag, the weightlifter from Jengka, Pahang, believes she can go far in Myanmar. 

“Although there are competitors from more countries at the Commonwealth level, the women’s 53kg contest at the SEA Games is a unique and difficult challenge,” said Azizah. 

“The 53kg category is the ideal weight for South-East Asian women to vie for glory at the Olympic and world level. As such, I will be facing competition from the top lifters from Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar who are of world standard. To get on the podium will be a big achievement, but I believe that I can give the others a good run for the gold medal.”

Azizah, whose talents were first spotted when women’s weightlifting made its Malaysia Games (Sukma) debut in 2006, became the first female Malaysian weightlifter to qualify and compete in the Olympics in London last year.

“Nothing came easy for me as I had to work hard to move up every level. I first started out in the sport because my neighbour Jamil Hashim was the weightlifting coach in my school. I continued to train under him until joining the Bukit Jalil Sports School in 2007.

“After that, I was in the national back-up squad and continued to improve before being promoted into the elite squad two years ago. Now, the time has come for me to move up to the next level and start producing results in competitions like the SEA and Commonwealth Games,” said the Universiti Putra Malaysia mass communication undergraduate.

The Malaysian squad are confident of ending an eight-year gold drought in Myanmar. At the last Games, the lifters returned with just a silver and a bronze.
Malaysia will be competing in nine out of the 11 categories contested in Myanmar.

The Malaysian Weightlifting Federation (MWF) are placing their hopes on 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Hafifi Mansor (69kg) and 2011 SEA Games silver medallist Mohd Faiz Musa (94kg) to deliver.

Azizah feels that the Malaysian women are ready to start shouldering the responsibility of hauling in the medals.

“The four women lifters are not going there just to make up the numbers. All of us are capable of winning a historic first gold medal for Malaysia.

“There were only a handful of girls involved in weightlifting when I started out eight years ago. We have progressed a lot since then. There is now a large pool of female talents available at schools level to be roped into the special programmes,” said Azizah.

Besides Azizah, the other women lifters in the Games squad are Franceay Titus (58kg), Elyonie Martin (63kg) and Norkhasidah Abdul Halim (69kg).
thestar.com.my
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SEA Games’ Tougher, Says Commonwealth Champ Azizah

MALAYSIA UPDATED. It is not often that one hears the argument that the level of competition in the SEA Games is tougher than the Commonwealth Games.
 
National weightlifter Azizah Fadzil certainly feels so as she gears up to compete in the women’s 53kg and below at this month’s Myanmar SEA Games.

The petite 22-year-old, who won the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships gold medal in the same category in Penang last week, faces an uphill task to repeat the feat in Myanmar in three weeks’ time.

Nestor Colonia Out from Philippines’ SEA Games Squad?

PHILIPPINE UPDATED. Possibility of Nestor Colonia to be scratched from the SEA Games squad is high after he failed to lift the required weight last Tuesday’s qualifying lift in Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, attended by SEA Games Chef de Mission Co. Jeff Tamayo.

Nestor Colonia has already booked his SEA Games ticket last Philippine National Games in May where he lifted 284kg, enough to erase the 208kg Gold medal lift in 2011 SEA Games in Indonesia 58kg division.

He was then sent by PSC to China for three months to prepare for the most important biennial meet in the region; but after coming back from China, he has gained weight thus he had to participate again in the qualifying lift last Tuesday to test his potential in his new weight division, men’s 62kg.

Tamayo was disappointed after Colonia did not deliver.

Because of this, the SEA Games Task Force asked the Philippine Weightlifting Association to remove Colonia from the official list and replace him with Asian Junior Weightlifting champion, Jeffrey Garcia, along with Hidilyn Diaz in weightlifting squad.

Twenty year old Garcia lifted 167kg clean and jerk, and 125kg snatch with a total of 270kg which is quite close to the SEA Games standard of 310kg in men’s 62kg division.

If Jeffrey Garcia will be officially included in the line-up though, he still has to reduce weight from 68kg to 62kg.

In the recent Asian Junior Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Garcia bagged two gold medals where he topped the clean and jerk and total lift in the junior men’s 62 kilogram division.

Nestor Colonia, meanwhile, won three silver medals — snatch, clean and jerk, and total in the 56 kilogram event.

Garcia took the gold despite finishing only sixth in the snatch with a lift of 115 kilograms. He hoisted 155 kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 270 kg.

Garcia actually tied Su Xingbao’s total but had a higher tiebreak score. Artykov Izzat of Kyrgyzstan took the bronze medal in the total event.

Around 400 weightlifters from 48 countries participated in the meet.
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Jelang SEA Games, 10 Lifter Indonesia Berlatih di China

INDONESIA UPDATED. Jelang pelaksanaan SEA Games 2013 di Myanmar, atlet angkat besi Indonesia bakal menjalani trainning camp (TC) di China bulan depan. Indonesia bakal memboyong 10 atletnya untuk fokus persiapan di SEA Games nanti. 

Pelatih angkat besi nasional, Lukman mengatakan, atlet yang bakal ikut TC ke China antara lain, dari Kaltim tiga atlet yakni Eko Yuli Irawan, Edi Kurniawan dan Siti Sarah.  Dari Jawa Barat sebanyak lima lifter yakni Imam Jamaludin, Deni, M Pukron, Sri Wauhyuni dan Sarah Angraini. Ditambah dua lifter asal Bali yaitu Ketut Ariana dan Shinta Darma Ariani. 

"Rencana awal bulan depan. Mulai bulan ini, kami tidak akan mengikuti kejuaraan lagi. Selama TC di China hanya latihan dan latih tanding saja. Kita pilih di Cina karena sudah ada kerjasama antara KONI dan KOI Indonesia dengan China," jelas Lukman, Kamis (3/10/2013).

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