Hidilyn Diaz finished with a score of 200kg at women’s weightlifting thus ending the 20-year Olympic medal drought for the Philippines.
Diaz, a native of Zamboanga City, secured a silver medal in the 53-kg weightlifting division of the 2016 Summer Games on Sunday, August 7 (Monday morning, August 8 in Manila) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Aside from winning the first medal for the country in the 2016 Rio Olympics, she also made history for the Philippines by becoming the first female athlete to win an Olympic medal, the first Filipino to win a medal in weightlifting, and the first non-boxer to win a medal from the Philippines since 1936.
In the clean and jerk lift, Chinese-Taipei’s Hsu Shu-Ching logged in 112kg on the scoreboard with her first lift as she won the gold medal. Diaz successfully lifted 111 kg in the first attempt and then a 112 kg lift in her second attempt for the silver. Korea’s Yoon Jin Hee scored 111kg on her third attempt and ended up with the bronze.
The 25-year-ol Diaz is a bronze medalist in the 2015 World Weightlifting Championships and a gold medal winner in Asia.
