PHL team member Nestor Colonia breaks the Philippine record of the 67kg open category
6-in-1 National Weightlifting c’ships
OLYMPIAN Nestor Colonia easily broke the record of fellow Philippine team lifter Jeffrey Garcia yesterday in the 6-in-1 National Weightlifting Championships at the SM Seaside City Cebu yesterday.
But for the Zamboanga city native, it was just another day in the local weightlifting scene.
The 26-year-old veteran lifter, who trains at the University of Zamboanga (UZ) and represented the Philippine Air Force (PAF) in the ongoing tournament, even said that he is far from his target considering that he has set his sights on the Olympic qualifier next year — the Asian Championships in China.
Colonia lifted a total of 274 kilograms to erase Garcia’s record of 230kgs and set a new Philippine record in the 67kgs open division.
Colonia though wasn’t satisfied with his performance. “Philippine records come and go easily. Right now I am the record holder, the next day, someone can break it but it is still a big achievement for us because that means that we are improving in our performances,” Colonia told Cebu Daily News.
Garcia had vacated the 67kgs in lieu of a higher weight class.
Colonia beat Hundum Weightlifting Team’s Limrenzen Atolba who lifted a total of 235kgs while his teammate, Joseph Libres, grabbed the bronze medal with a total lift of 191kgs.
His clean and jerk was 151kgs in total while he snatched 123kgs to provide the much-needed highlight in this week-long competition that has drawn veterans and newbies including Asian Games gold medalist and Olympic silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz.
“The kids that are competing in this event are very lucky compared to us before because they are enjoying the developments of weightlifting in our country. Before we compete in parking areas, there were no audiences, no sponsors at all unlike now we are doing our sport inside a mall with a lot of sponsors and attention so, I am so happy for this,” added Colonia who started weightlifting at the age of nine.
More than 100 weightlifters from all over the country are currently vying in different categories.
Most noticeable is a large number of young lifters as young as 10 years old.
“I have to perform my best so that the kids who join this competition will be inspired more to train harder,” Colonia said.