HIDILYN DIAZ NARANJO found herself as the women’s 55 kgs top seed at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships after Kazakhstan’s Zulfiya Chinshanlo’s was mysteriously scrapped from the start list.
But with or without Chinshanlo—and even top Chinese Liao Qiuyun—Diaz Naranjo said the competition remains tough in the Bogota world championships set from December 5 to 16.
“It’s going to be tougher field because these are the world championships,” Diaz said.
Diaz Naranjo said Liao, who settled for silver behind Diaz Naranjo at the Tokyo Olympics last year, is retired.
Chinshanlo, bronze medalist in Tokyo, was the erstwhile top seed when she entered a target lift of 215 kgs to Diaz Naranjo’s 210 kgs.
It’s not known why the Kazakh was dropped from the now 25-athlete 55 kgs roster, but Diaz Naranjo surmised she could be skipping Bogota perhaps exhausted from the Asian championships last October in Bahrain where she won the gold medal.
But Diaz Naranjo said she’s not totally dismissing Chinshanlo from the competition. She can still beat this Saturday’s registration deadline.
“She [Chinshanlo] is performing really good particularly in Bahrain she lifted a total 220 kgs,” said Diaz Naranjo, who’s training for the world championships at the Power and Grace Performance Gym in Suwalee, Georgia, in the US with husband-coach Julius Naranjo.
Seeded behind the pride of Zamboanga City who has yet to win her first world championships gold medal are Tokyo Olympian Ana Gabriela Lopez (No. 2) and Irene Esmeralda (No. 3) both of Mexico, Andreaa Cotruta (No. 4) of Romania and Enkhtamir Enkhbaatar (No. 5) of Mongolia. They submitted similar weight entries of 205 kgs.
Diaz Naranjo’s cousin, coach Allen Diaz, told BusinessMirror Chinshanlo could still appear on the start list as he also cited her stint in Bahrain as a factor for her dropping out.
“Maybe she withdraw or transferred to Group B,” Diaz said. “She came from a tough Asian competition in Bahrain.”
The other Filipino weightlifters seeing action in Bogota are Asian champion Vanessa Sarno and Kristel Macrohon (71 kgs), Rosegie Ramos and Lovely Inan (49 kgs), Elreen Ann Ando (59 kgs), Rio Olympian Nestor Colonia (55 kg)s, John Febuar Ceniza (61 kgs) and Dave Lloyd Pacaldo (67 kgs).
Diaz Naranjo is looking at moving to the 59 kgs division after the 55 kgs division where she won gold in Tokyo was scrapped for the Paris 2024 Olympics.