THE country’s top weightlifters, including Cebuanos John Febuar Ceniza and Elreen Anne Ando, are expected to compete in the 2020 IWF Asian Championships in Kazakhstan.

The Asian Championship set in March is the final Olympic qualifying event. The PH team weightlifters need to accumulate enough points to make the cut in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The PH weightlifting team recently had a stellar performance in the Roma 2020 Weightlifting World Cup held in Pala Pellicone in Italy last week, where the team won three gold medals and three bronzes.

Ceniza, a silver medalist in the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games), seized a bronze medal in Italy. Ceniza started weightlifting through the Cebu City Sports Commission.

With the recent victory, Ceniza has positioned himself for a possible Olympic berth along with fellow Filipino lifters Nestor Colonia and Olympic silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz.

In Italy, Diaz won three gold medals broken down into 93kg in the snatch, 119kg in clean and jerk, and 212kg in total. She now ranks No. 4 in the world, which improved her chances to qualify for Tokyo 2020.

The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) gave a P2.2 million budget for the airfare, accommodation, allowance and other related expenses of the seven athletes and four officials who competed in Italy.

This is apart from the P1.7 million budget for the core team of Diaz. (RSC)