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    Hidilyn Diaz braces for Thai challenge in fight for SEA Games gold

    Thai lifter a former Olympic gold medalist like Diaz
    May 19, 2022

    HANOI – Hidilyn Diaz goes for a 31st Southeast Asian Games gold medal on Friday in the weightlifting competitions at the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Centre.

    The start of the women’s 55 kilogram competition is at 12 noon (1 p.m. Manila time).

    This year’s SEA Games will be the first time Diaz will be competing in a multisport event following her historic gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Diaz is also defending the women’s 55 kilogram title she won in Manila in convincing fashion at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

    [See How talent, grit, science and a little mind game turned Hidilyn into gold]

    On the eve of her event, the ritual from the Olympics has been the same as in the SEA Games as Diaz stepped into the platform to internalize the competition proper, according to a post on Instagram by Team HD coach and fiancé Julius Naranjo.

    Before going to the Vietnam capital, Diaz and Team HD trained in Ho Chi Minh City for a couple of days in the final stretch of the build-up.

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      Naranjo admitted the challenges in preparing for the event following the high of the Olympic gold, the first ever for the Philippines in history.

      “We’re as ready as we can be. It’s been a challenge to come back to competition shape, but we have gotten as far as we have because we know what our goals are,” said Naranjo in an Instagram post.

      Expected to crowd Diaz for the gold is Thailand’s Sanikun Tanasarn, a former gold medalist in the 2016 Olympics but in the lighter weight class of 48 kilograms.

      Sanikun didn’t take part in the Olympics due to a two-year suspension and a ban on the Thailand weightlifting association after a couple of athletes tested positive for banned substances during the 2018 world championship.

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