Boholana weightlifter Vanessa Sarno spreads the Philippine flag after winning gold medals in the Asian Weightlifting Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. | contributed photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines—Boholana weightlifter Vanessa Sarno made waves in the international scene, winning two gold medals for the Philippines in the ongoing Asian Weightlifting Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The 17-year old Tagbilaran City native finished her campaign in the women’s 71-kilogram division impressively by lifting a total of 229kg and had a 128kg clean and jerk to grab the two gold medals on Wednesday night, April 21, 2021. She also won a silver medal by snatching 101kg.
Turkeministan’s Gulnabat Kadyrova settled for the silver behind Sarno with a total of 223kg (102kg best snatch and 128kg clean and jerk).
Salvaging the bronze medal was Kazakhstan’s Yekaterina Bykova, who lifted a total of 213kg (91kg best snatch, 122kg clean and jerk).
Last Tuesday, Cebuana weightlifter Elreen Ann Ando bagged two silver medals and one bronze medal in the women’s 64kg division.
Read: Cebu’s Ando bags three medals in Asian Championships
With this, the two brightened their chances of qualifying for the Olympics. They will have to wait for the decision from the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) on this as they will still be computing all six events where they participated in.
The IWF officials need to see if they get into the top eight qualifiers in their respective weight divisions for them to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in July this year.
As of this posting, the Philippine weightlifting team has two gold medals, six silvers, and three bronzes in the competition.
/bmjo