Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo bids for first world title
The Philippines' Olympic champion faces home favourite Rosalba Morales as she seeks to add the world crown to her Olympic gold from Tokyo 2020 last year.
Weightlifting
Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo is in Colombia ahead of weightlifting's 2022 IWF World Championships in Bogota which starts on Monday (5 December).
The Philippines' only Olympic champion to date will bid for her first world title in the Colombian capital with her 55kg competition taking place on Wednesday.
Diaz-Naranjo won 55kg gold at Tokyo 2020 last year, but that weight class has been dropped for Paris 2024 where she plans to move up to 59kg in what would be her fifth and final Olympic Games.
For now, she is remaining in her usual class and hoping to add more hardware to her collection at the first World Championships to be staged in South America.
The IWF World Championships is also the first qualification event for the Paris Games with valuable ranking points up for grabs.
Diaz-Naranjo leads a 10-strong Filipino team in Bogota.
Having married her strength and conditioning coach, Julius Naranjo, in July, the star lifter had to get back to studies.
Last month, she successfully defended her thesis which will enable her to complete her degree in business management from Manila's De La Salle College of Saint Benilde.
Hidilyn Diaz steps up training ahead of Worlds
With that academic milestone ticked off, Diaz-Naranjo has been able to focus fully again on her sporting career.
Before flying to Colombia, she was in the United States at a star-studded training camp in Suwanee, Georgia.
Joining her were Canada's Olympic 64kg champion Maude Charron, 76kg Tokyo silver medallist Katherine Vibert (formerly Nye), and two-time Pan American champion Jourdan Delacruz.
Diaz-Naranjo recently revealed that, despite being an Olympic champion, she still finds it difficult to fund her training, travelling and competition expenses.
But she greatly enjoyed this experience ahead of her first major competiton since retaining her South East Asian Games title in May.
Speaking after that triumph in Vietnam, she told Olympics.com “This is the beginning of my journey towards Paris 2024. I'm excited. [It will be a] little bit challenging to qualify again in Paris. But again, I will do my best with Team HD.
"For us to qualify and win again the gold medal in Olympics - we will do our best." - Hidilyn Diaz in May 2022
Who will Hidilyn Diaz compete against at Bogota IWF World Championships?
With her entry total weight of 210.0kg, Diaz has been seeded number two behind Colombia's Rosalba Morales who certainly will not lack for home support.
Morales won South American Games gold in Asuncion, Paraguay in October with a total of 201.0kg which marks her out as a genuine medal contender.
The clean and jerk silver medallist at the 2018 Junior World Championships is some way behind Diaz-Naranjo's Olympic record of 224.0kg, but the crowd could easily inspire her to a new personal best.
Morales is stronger in the snatch then the clean and jerk, and will need to establish an early lead if she is to challenge for gold.
Kazakhstan's Olympic bronze medallist and reigning Asian champion Zulfiya Chinshanlo had been set to challenge Diaz-Naranjo, but her name is missing from the official entry list.
The third seed in Bogota is USA's fast-rising Shayla Moore Hutchins who is based at the Power and Grace Performance Gym where the Filipino star had her recent camp of Olympians.
Moore Hutchins only started lifting four years ago after competing in acrobatics and tumbling while at Baylor University, but she's making up for lost time and won her first international competition - the Pan American Championships in Bogota - in July.
Like Diaz-Naranjo, the 27-year-old is stronger in the clean and jerk although she will probably have to improve significantly on her 193.0kg total from July to make the medals.
READ MORE: Top things to know about the 2022 IWF World Championships
Youth could make a hefty impression in the competition with 18-year-old Uzbek lifter Nigora Abdullaeva competing at her first senior World Championships having won youth world gold in 2019.
Abdullaeva took snatch and combined bronze at October's Asian Championships in Bahrain behind Chinshanlo with a total of 193.0kg.
Romania's Andreea Cotruta, 19, leads the European challenge with 22-year-old Mongolian Enkhtamir Enkhbaatar and Mexican duo Irene Borrago, 21, and Tokyo Olympic finallist Ana Gabriela Lopez, a relative veteran at 28, also among the top seeds.
Peru's Shoely Mego, 23, is the last of the seeds with a declared entry weight in excess of 200.0kg.
2022 World Weightlifting Championships: Competition schedule (A finals only)
Monday 5 December
Women 45kg
Tuesday 6 December
Women 49kg
Men 55kg
Wednesday 7 December
Men 61kg
Women 55kg
Thursday 8 December
Women 59kg
Friday 9 December
Men 67kg
Men 73kg
Saturday 10 December
Women 64kg
Sunday 11 December
Men 81kg
Men 89kg
Monday 12 December
Men 96kg
Women 71kg
Tuesday 13 December
Women 76kg
Men 102kg
Wednesday 14 December
Women 81kg
Men 87kg
Thursday 15 December
Women +87kg
Men 109kg
Friday 16 December
Men +109kg