Puentevella: No Sarno, no problem

The suspension imposed on Vanessa Sarno will hardly create a hole in the program of the Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas (SWP).

SWP president Monico Puentevella told DAILY TRIBUNE that Sarno’s absence could be a blessing in disguise as a pair of superstars in Hidilyn Diaz and Elreen Ando are locked in a bitter dispute for a lone spot in the 59-kilogram category in the national squad.

Five years since winning the country’s first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, the 34-year-old Diaz remains active.

But her bid to win another medal in the Summer Games suffered a major blow when the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) scrapped her weight category — the 55kg class — during the Paris Olympics.

With that, she climbed to a higher weight class — the 59kg category — that is being dominated by Ando. Unfortunately for Diaz, she failed to outshine Ando in the IWF World Cup, forcing her to miss the Paris Games.

Puentevella said with Sarno getting suspended, that deadlock appears to have been resolved as Ando can climb to a higher weight category up to 71kg, paving the way for Diaz to compete in the 59kg class and make a serious run for a slot in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

“Elreen can replace Vanessa in the 71kg event. Anyway, she’s still young and she can still make some adjustments,” Puentevella said in a telephone interview shortly after news of Sarno’s suspension broke out.

“If Elreen moves up, then Hidilyn can return and compete at 59. We know these are major adjustments but we have to do it so that we will not feel the impact of Vanessa’s suspension.”

Sarno, an Asian champion and two-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, was slapped with a two-year suspension by the International Testing Agency committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation after failing to inform her whereabouts to testing authorities three times within a 12-month period.