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    Gao Kaiwen uncertain on comeback as Hidilyn coach

    Hidilyn’s Chinese coach on returning to the country: ‘I don’t know’
    Aug 6, 2021

    GAO Kaiwen, the Chinese coach who shaped Hidilyn Diaz into becoming the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medalist, remains uncertain on whether he’ll be coming back and continue to guide the Filipina in pursuit of greater glory.

    Will coach Gao Kaiwen come back?

    The 64-year-old Gao couldn’t say what his plans are once he returns to China and finally be reunited with his family with whom he’s been away for almost three years.

    “I don’t know, I don’t know,” a smiling Gao said in broken English when asked if he will still be going back to the country and continue coaching her golden girl protégé following the Filipina’s historic feat in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

    The Chinese coach was even teased that he will be personally fetched from his homeland just to make sure he returns to the country and work with Team HD anew.

    “OK, if you don’t come back, we will look for you in China,” joked the Philippine Star’s assistant sports editor Abac Cordero, which elicited a huge smile on the face of the retired coach of the Chinese Bayi weightlifting team.

    After Diaz and the rest of her team finished their quarantine on Thursday, Gao said he will remain in the country for a few more weeks before returning to China.

    “I will leave next month,” he briefly said while his bags and other belongings were being loaded to a black van parked just outside the lobby of the Sofitel Hotel on a rainy Thursday noon.

    Reports of Gao leaving the country cast a bit of a gloom to what has been the most glorious moment in Philippine sports after the 30-year-old Diaz ended the country’s 97 years of waiting to win a breakthrough Olympic gold by ruling the 55-kg class of the women’s weightlifting event in the Tokyo Olympiad.

    Diaz beat world record holder Liao Quiyun of China for the gold.

    Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas (SWP) Monico Puentevella while still in Tokyo, admitted that Gao has asked that his contract, which runs until December, be terminated and will only be getting his salary for the last month before leaving for China.

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    But the former Bacolod mayor and congressman said everything has yet been finalized.

    “Later pa pag-uusapan namin. Wala pang final,” he said during the brief ceremony where Diaz was given her P3 million financial award courtesy of Deputy Speaker and NorthPort team owner Mikee Romero.

    Team HD Gao Kaiwen

    As per the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Gao has been receiving a monthly salary of $2,500 since arriving in the country late in 2018 and began acting as Diaz’s coach starting in the Asian Games in Jakarta where the Filipina also won the gold.

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    He was given a large credit for the success of Diaz’s later success that includes a bronze medal in the IWF World Championships, a gold in the Manila Southeast Asian Games and the World Cup in Italy, and eventually culminating in a record-breaking feat in Tokyo.

    Diaz is the third Olympic gold medalist coached by Gao and the only non-Chinese.

    He was responsible for training two of his country’s previous Olympic gold winners, namely Zhou Lulu in the 75-kg category during the 2012 London Olympics and Chen Xiexia in the 2008 Beijing Games.

    Apparently, the Chinese team which Diaz had beaten, wasn’t too enthusiastic about Gao’s role in helping Diaz win the gold over Liao.

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      But in a report by state news Xinhua, the media organization quoted Gao that while he was happy for the Filipina, he also felt ‘a great pity to watch the athlete from my country take a silver.’

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      Before coming over to the country, Gao served as coach of the Chinese Bayi weightlifting team and the women’s team of the Chinese army.

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