Young lifters Colonia, Delos Santos overjoyed

Angeline Colonia and Albert Ian delos Santos are still on cloud nine after clinching gold medals in the Asian Youth & Junior Weightlifting Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan last week.

Colonia, who picked up a gold in the junior women’s 48-kilogram snatch, said she was just hoping for a good lift against the best young talent in Asia.

The Zamboanga City native lifted 77kgs in the snatch for one of the two golds for the Philippines.

“For me, I only wanted a good performance in my lifts. I never expected I would get a gold in the snatch,” Colonia said.

“Countries like China were strong so I was so happy to get it.”

Going up from 67kg to 71kg category, Delos Santos said he just focused on what worked during his stint in the IWF Youth and Junior World Championships in Peru last May.

“I was expecting to face stronger opponents since some of them might be from the 73kg category,” Delos Santos said.

“I just focused on what I did right in Peru.”

Delos Santos lifted 177kgs in the clean-and-jerk for the gold.

The Philippines finished the Asian tilt with a 2-7-7 gold-silver-bronze medal tally.