The Philippines’ Hidilyn Diaz with her gold medal winning lift last night in the women’s 53-kilogram event of the 2018 Asian Games weightlifting competition at the Jakarta International Expo Hall A in Indonesia. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

JAKARTA — Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz lifted the entire nation as she delivered its first gold medal in the 18th Asian Games Tuesday at the Jakarta International Expo Hall B here.

Diaz, the country’s brightest bet after emerging with a silver medal in the Rio Olympics and the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) the past couple of years, lifted 207 kilograms (kg) to rule the women’s -53kg event in weightlifting.

Kristina Shermetova of Turkmenistan, the bronze medalist in the AIMAG, tallied 206kg to settle for the silver while Khambao Surodchana of Thailand registered 201kg to clinch the bronze.

Diaz’s heroics came on the day the Filipinos were in dire search of a hero.

Pauline Lopez handed the country its fourth bronze medal, but her bid was marred with tears and frustrations following a tough loss to a taller, longer Chinese in taekwondo.

Ranged against a six-footer in Zhongshi Luo of China, Lopez struggled to keep up as she absorbed a tough 4-11 setback in the women’s -57kg category.

It was a close match in the first two rounds with Lopez trailing by just two but Luo used her size and reach advantage to the hilt to put away the hard-fighting Filipina from California.

Lopez showed up for post-match interview soaking in sweat and tears and politely excused herself from a handful of Filipino journalists.

She pulled herself and talked to head coach Igor Mella before declaring her frustration for not leading the country to its first gold medal in this prestigious quadrennial tournament.

“I’m sorry if I failed you. I’m sorry if I didn’t win the gold,” Lopez, who is taking up BS Psychology at Ateneo de Manila University, told Daily Tribune’s Asiad coverage supported by Primehomes.

“It’s definitely painful knowing that if I did this, it would have been different and if I did that it would have also been different.”

“But I really can’t dwell on it right now. I just have to move forward and go back to the gym to work on my mistakes.”

Lopez was supposed to provide a ray of sunshine on the Filipinos’ gloomy campaign.

She demolished Xiao Feng of Macauo, 8-0, in the Round of 16 before silencing Gyani Chunara of Nepal, 20-0, in the quarterfinals.

“We had a really good plan against that tall Chinese girl,” she said.

“But it doesn’t matter. It just so happened that I tried to catch up so I tried to go for a higher point, which is four points. In doing so I kept on fouling so I was given a warning. Next time I will do better.”

Still, there’s a good reason to celebrate.

With Diaz’s golden finish and Lopez’s bronze, the country hiked its production to one gold and four bronze medals following consolation finishes in men’s and women’s poomsae events and Agatha Wong in wushu.

As of 7 p.m., Team Philippines climbed to 14th place while China remains way ahead with 24 gold medals as well as Japan, Korea and host Indonesia, which had 11, six and five mints, respectively.

Meanwhile, the popular women’s volleyball team bowed to Japan, 12-25, 15-25, 21-25 while Gilas Pilipinas lost to China, 80-82, in a game in which head coach Yeng Guiao strongly considers as a victory.

“We were assembled only two weeks ago and (Jordan) Clarkson has been with us for only five days,” Guiao said after his wards gave the taller Chinese a pretty good scare.

“I don’t consider it as a loss. For me, it was a win.”

Also yielding was Diaz’s fellow Olympian in Elaine Kirstie Alora, who bombed out early following a 7-8 setback to Cansel Deniz of Kazakhstan in the Round of 32 of women’s 67-kg taekwondo competition.

Contrary to Diaz, Alora was out of focus as she struggled with errors early on that doomed her chances.

Alora admitted that she wasn’t at her best.

“I had problem with court management. All of her points came from my errors,” said Alora, who awarded her Kazakhs foe, also an Olympian, with five points off turnovers.

“If not for those errors, it could have been a different story. I think I have to work more on that in the next tournament.”

Also making an early exit was Kristopher Uy, who bowed to Hongyi Sun of China, 7-9, in the men’s 80kg class, leaving four other Filipino jins in contention in this prestigious quadrennial tourney.

The most heartbreaking story, however, was that of cyclist Ariana Dormitorio.

Dormitorio, the highest ranked among all entries, failed to live above expectations as she did not finish in the 25-kilometer women’s cross-country in Subang, a town in the Subang province in West Java.

The 22-year-old Asian mountain bike champion was running second in the second lap when she was forced to stop racing due to crashes and cramps.

Binwa Yao and Lee Hofeng of China bagged the gold and silver medals, respectively, while Natalie Panyawan pocketed the bronze.

Moments later, Dormitorio resigned from the national squad, citing that the Integrated Cycling Federation (PhilCycling) failed to provide her with ample support to emerge victorious.

Her father and coach – Donjie Dormitorio – noted that Philcycling officials didn’t process his accreditation and failed to arrange their early arrival in the competition venue for last-minute training and acclimatization.