MANILA, Philippines — Taking one of the first steps in her bid for a return trip to the Olympics, top Filipina weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz took runner-up honors amid the gold rush and record-breaking spree of host China in the AWF Asian Weightlifting Championships Monday night in Ningbo, China. Uzbekistan’s Muattar Nabieva grabbed the bronze medals with her 91-113-204 performance. Diaz, who won the Asian Games gold at the old 53kg class, scored 913.79 Robi points with this showing, which should boost her stock in the International Weighlifting Federation’s qualification system for Tokyo 2020. Under the new rules, qualification for the next Olympiad will be based on performances in six events over an 18-month period. “I’m not quite there yet and still have much to improve,” said the 28-year-old Filipina.

Source: Philippine Star April 23, 2019 16:00 UTC