ASIAN Games 2018 gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz bared that the sport of weightlifting has not improved even after she won a silver medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics, thus, she urged sports leaders to put order in the sports organization to benefit its athletes.
“Ang sa akin lang, yung sports ko di nag-progress dahil magulo ang association namin,” Diaz said in a Facebook interview with SunStar Davao yesterday.
Diaz, who clinched last Tuesday evening the country's first gold in the ongoing 18th Asiad in Indonesia, also called on weightlifting officials, saying, “Ayusin na ang dapat ayusin. They know what I mean.”
The Cebu Weightlifting Association (CWA), in press statement furnished to SunStar Cebu recently, claimed that the Philippine Weightlifting Association Inc. (PWAI) “is in turmoil because of a former president who wants it replaced as the recognized NSA under the Philippine Olympic Committee umbrella”.
CWA also said that when PWAI president Roger Dullano left the country, former president Monico Puentevella installed himself as the new president without an election or a congress. The latter, according to CWA, also informed the International Weightlifting Federation that the new federation for the Philippines is the Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas.
CWA also bared that there has been no grassroots programs conducted in the country by the PWAI after Diaz's silver feat in Brazil.
Thus, CWA president Felix Tiukinhoy, who is also PWAI board member, wrote Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Ricky Vargas to join him in calling for an election in the NSA to solve the “impasse.”