HIDILYN DIAZ-NARANJO is on the comeback trail and set a modest goal of making the podium at next month’s 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.
‘All I can say for now is I will come up prepared and ready for SEA Games,’ Diaz-Naranjo told BusinessMirror on Wednesday. ‘I’m in the lineup for the December games and this is going to be a big sacrifice.’
Diaz-Naranjo won the country’s first Olympic gold medal at Tokyo 2020 (2021) in women’s -56 kgs of weightlifting, but failed to qualify for Paris after the weight category was scrapped to give way for the -59 kgs division.
She went for the heavier weight but failed to qualify during the International Weightlifting Federation World Cup in May 2024 in Phuket where Elreen Ann Ando earned her second ticket to the Olympics.
That was her last international stint but has since trained consistently in her weightlifting academy in Jala-Jala.
‘My training in Jala-jala everyday looks great and I’m thankful to my husband Julius for helping me out,’ she said.
Diaz-Naranjo isn’t promising a gold medal in Thailand-where she’ll be up against Thai Suratwadee Yodsarn, a silver medalist in the Asian championships last May in Jiangshan, China-but a mere podium finish.
‘They [Thais] are very strong now and they are competing at home,’ she said. ‘They have that Asian championship silver medalist who is expected to be very competitive.’
Thailand-and Malaysia-served a three-year ban starting from Tokyo 2020 from the IWF after several of its weightlifters failed anti-doping tests, but is now back in action in its fourth-time hosting of the biennial SEA Games scheduled December 9 to 20.
Diaz-Naranjo said she had bulked up and needs to shed at least 3 kgs to make the grade in the games.
‘I got bigger,’ she said.
She owns two SEA Games gold medals-in Philippines 2019 and Hanoi 2022-below her world championships title in Bogota also in 2022 and Asian Games crown in Jakarta 2018-victories she posted at -53, -55 and -59 kgs.
Diaz-Naranjo has been a weightlifter for 23 years and set up the HD Weightlifting Academy in Jala-jala after her success in Tokyo.
‘It fulfills me not only as an athlete but as a true weightlifter who want to spread the sport,’ she said. ‘When we started in Vigan [2022 Batang Pinoy], we only had a few athletes but right now we added a few more quality athletes.’
She brought her young weightlifters to General Santos City last month for the 2025 Batang Pinoy.