Hidilyn gets lucky break

Hidilyn Diaz’s chance of finally winning an Olympic gold medal got a shot in the arm after her main rivals reportedly failed the World Anti-Doping Agency testing.

Elbert Atilano, who guided Diaz in the early part of her career, told Daily Tribune that lifters from China, Chinese Taipei and Thailand were barred from seeing action in the international arena, including the Tokyo Olympics next year, after flunking several doping tests.

Diaz is the country’s brightest bet to win an Olympic gold.

She nearly captured it in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, but Hsu Shu-ching of Chinese Taipei outshone her to win the gold in the women’s -53kg category.

Hsu, however, will not see action in the Tokyo Games as her samples tested positive for banned substance in January last year, prompting the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee (CTOC) to place her under a three-year ban in all international tournaments.

CTOC made the information public only last March after WADA uncovered her case.

“Yes, China, Russia, Chinese Taipei were caught doping,” Atilano said.

“There is an existing legal battle about that. The thing is, International Olympic Committee is closely monitoring the International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) action.”

“IWF had no choice but to ban them because they are all from very influential countries.”

With her top rivals no longer standing in the way, Atilano believes that the elusive gold medal is finally within reach.

After all, Diaz is at fourth in the world ranking behind three Chinese lifters, who also tested positive for banned substance.

“Now we have bigger chances to win it. We are anticipating that there might be athletes who would come from behind and will pose another challenge. But that rarely happens,” Atilano said.

“If we’ll be able to get back her 96kg snatch that she performed in 2015, and her clean and jerk lift on 120 to 124 kilograms, then it is an assurance that we will get the gold medal.”

Still, Atilano refuses to get complacent.

He said they are still fixing some minimal changes on Diaz’s techniques to make sure that the gold will not slip away.

“I kept on telling Hidilyn to focus on her target and not just on the mere idea of lifting,” he said.

“We should stick to our objective of winning the gold medal. Once we got it, everything will follow.”