Olympians Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo and Carlos Yulo to skip the Cambodia SEA Games to give way to olympic qualifying events.
Olympians Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo and Carlos Yulo will not defend their titles in the Southeast Asian Games happening on May 5-17 in Phnom Penh
The 32nd edition of SEA Games will conflict with the 2023 Asian Weightlifting Championships — an Olympic qualifying tournament — scheduled on May 3-13 in Jinju, South Korea for Diaz-Naranjo.
Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Richard Bachmann confirmed the development and revealed that he has been aware that two of the country’s stars will not be seeing action in the said event.
“The last time I talked to Ma'am Cynthia Carrion was that he (Yulo) won’t be able to join the SEA Games,” said Bachmann on Tuesday in the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, reported Spin.ph
“Same thing I understand, Hidilyn is also not going to the SEA Games.”
For Diaz-Naranjo, she feels the need to double her preparations as she is set to compete with fellow Tokyo Olympian Elreen Ando in the same weight class at 59kg in the Asian championships.
“[Hidilyn] will skip the SEA Games because she wants to focus on 59kg. Since Ando has been competing in the same weight, they will both show up in the Asian championships,” said Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas president Monico Puentevella to Sports Inquirer.
Aside from the Asian championships, Hidilyn is expected to go through five qualifying tournaments before the Paris Olympics with two of them compulsory events—the 2023 IWF World Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Sept. 2-17, 2023 and the 2024 IWF World Cup.
With this, other Filipino athletes will have to rise up in the given situation and raise the country's flag against the other competing nations.
“It’s a perfect time for other athletes who’s been training to step up and perform for the national team,” said the PSC chairman.
“It’s about time other athletes step up. That’s why we have a national pool, that’s why we have grassroots (program).”
Tags: #Olympics, #SEAGames, #nationalteam