Filipino weightlifter Rose Jean Ramos bagged the bronze medal in the clean and jerk of the women’s 45-kg category on Saturday night in the 2022 Asian Championships at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Manama, Bahrain.
The 17-year-old pride of Zamboanga City lifted 85kg to finish third behind Siti Nafisatul Hariroh of Indonesia (91kg) and Khong My Phuong of Vietnam (88kg).
Ramos also lifted 85kg in the clean and jerk when she retained the title at the World Youth Weightlifting Championships in Leon City, Guanajuato, Mexico last June.
In snatch, Phuong won the gold medal with 78kg. Nafisatul, a bronze medalist in the 2022 Vietnam Southeast Asian Games, took the silver with her second lift of 71kg while Harshada Sharad Garud of India got the bronze with 68kg. Ramos was fourth with 67kg.
Phuong, the 2019 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Junior World champion, tallied 166kg to collect her second gold medal. Nafisatul secured the silver medal with 162kg and Garud claimed the bronze medal with 152kg.
Garud is the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the IWF Junior World Championships in Heraklion, Greece last May.
“She’s the world champion for youth and juniors. But in spite of being six years younger than the gold medalist, she still won a bronze in the Asian Seniors Championships. She’s the youngest in the field. This is the way to build future champions. To face even the best seniors in Asia,” said Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas (SWP) President Monico Puentevella, who awarded the bronze medal to Ramos.
Meanwhile, Fernando Agad Jr. failed to make the podium in the men’s 55kg category on Sunday night.
Gia Thanh Lai of Vietnam won the gold medal in snatch (120kg) and total (262kg) and the silver medal in clean and jerk (142kg). Chontey Arli of Kazakhstan topped the clean and jerk (144kg) and finished third in snatch (116kg) and second in total (260kg). Al Saleem Mansour of Saudi Arabia won the silver medal in snatch (119kg) and grabbed the bronze medal in clean and jerk (140kg) and totaled (259kg).
The SWP decided to enter only Ramos in the women’s division of the Asian Championships because the other lifters are going to compete in the upcoming IWF World Championships.
“This (Asian Championships) is not a qualifying event for Paris Olympics so we did not send our other best nine lifters who will participate in the World Championships in Colombia this coming December. We preserve them for the qualifying,” said Puentevella, who was inducted into the IWF Hall of Fame on June 27 this year.
The IWF World Championships to be hosted by Colombia’s capital city of Bogota is the first qualification event for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Ramos had an impressive performance early this year, winning four gold, one silver and one bronze in the Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championship at the Uzbekistan Sports Complex in Tashkent City in July,
The Grade 10 student from Mampang National High School ruled the Youth division title with a lift of 70kg in snatch, 83kg in clean and jerk for a total of 153kg. In the Junior division, she got the gold medal in the snatch (70kg), took the bronze medal in the clean and jerk (83kg), and secured the silver medal with a total lift of 153kg.
Ramos joined the national training pool in 2018. She has been training under Allen Jayfrus Diaz, a former national athlete and current member of the SWP coaching staff, for the past six years.
During the World Youth Weightlifting Championships in Mexico, she clinched the silver medal in snatch (70kg) for a total of 155kg. In the same tournament held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia last year, she won the gold medal in snatch (67kg), the silver medal in clean and jerk (80kg), and the gold medal in total (147kg). (PNA)
