A queen’s wisdom
NAGOYA, Japan—Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo sees an Olympian in Albert Ian Delos Santos.
Maybe even an Olympic champion.
But she was quick to temper expectations after watching the 20-year-old produce a record-breaking bronze medal in his Asian Games debut Saturday, with the Philippines’ first Olympic gold medalist offering a brief caveat: Delos Santos still has a long way to go.
“He’s the future of weightlifting. He’s a future Olympian, a potential gold medalist,” Diaz-Naranjo said. “But I was honest with him that realistically, he’s still far from the level of the Olympics.”
That assessment carries a bit more weight than your normal armchair analysis as it comes from Diaz-Naranjo, who spent years climbing through the sport before winning the women’s 55-kilogram gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
That gold ended the country’s century-long wait for an Olympic champion.
She believes Delos Santos possesses the strength, courage and competitive drive required to follow the same road.
But that would be all up to the rising lifter.
“This is the seniors division, and he needs to work doubly hard. The effort should be all out because the pressure is very high,” Diaz-Naranjo said. “I want to make him understand that the process in the Olympics is very hard.”
“But if he really wants to be in the Olympics, he can do it.”
Delos Santos provided plenty of evidence that the potential is real.
The youngest lifter in the Asian Games men’s 70-kilogram field, he made his first two snatch attempts at 138 kilograms and 141 kilograms before narrowly missing 143 kilograms.
Then he attacked the clean and jerk.
Delos Santos opened at 178 kilograms before lifting 181 kilograms and finally 183 kilograms, twice improving the junior world record during the competition.
Combined with his 141-kilogram snatch, the final lift gave him a 324-kilogram total and the bronze medal.
It also ended a 56-year wait for Philippine men’s weightlifting.
No Filipino male lifter had reached an Asian Games podium since Salvador del Rosario won the flyweight silver medal at the 1970 Games in Bangkok.
North Korea’s Ri Won Ju won gold with a 349-kilogram total after setting a senior world record with a 198-kilogram clean and jerk. Japan’s Masanori Miyamoto took silver with 342 kilograms.
“Ian is very different in a sense that he’s so strong and very brave,” Diaz-Naranjo said.
“The only thing that I can compare myself to him when I was his age was my drive to win. I will try to lift the heaviest that I can lift, and I see that in Ian.”
“To be honest, Ian is on a different level. He’s very strong,” she said.
Delos Santos has quickly accumulated results that explain the optimism around him.
He won the junior 70-kilogram titles in the snatch, clean and jerk and total at the Asian Youth and Junior Championships in August, where his 180-kilogram clean and jerk and 321-kilogram total established junior world records.
He reset those numbers on Saturday.
But Diaz-Naranjo’s point was that junior records and Asian Games medals are milestones, not guarantees.
The Olympic target is Los Angeles in 2028, and Delos Santos is working toward qualification with a team that includes Diaz-Naranjo’s husband and coach, Julius Naranjo.
“We can see the numbers, the data and the effort that he gives during training,” Diaz-Naranjo said.
Her immediate advice at the Asian Games was simpler.
Enjoy it.
“Sometimes he’s overly aggressive and needs to calm down and relax,” she said.
For now, he leaves Nagoya with a bronze medal, two higher junior records and important wisdom from his sport’s forever queen.
******
Get real-time news updates: inqnews.net/inqviber
