ELREEN Ando of the University of Cebu (UC) won the gold medal in the 64-kg category women’s division after lifting a total of 206 kilos in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) weightlifting competition at the Cebu City Sports Center.
Ando, who weighs 110 kilos, lifted 80 kilos in the clean and jerk.
She failed in her first attempt to lift 100 kilos in the snatch but challenged herself and asked if she could attempt a 116-kilo weight and lifted it successfully.
Before Ando lifted the 116-kilo weight, she was given a two-minute break by organizers, and during that break, Cesafi commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy, who is also the Cebu Weightlifting Association (CWA) president, announced that if she could lift, he will ask both the Cesafi and CWA to sponsor Ando’s allowance on her upcoming competition in China this April.
“She’s going to the Southeast Asian Games and this is an honor for Cesafi because we’re able to send an athlete to the Southeast Asian Games,” said Tiukinhoy.
Ando is also joining the 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championships, which will be held from April 18 to 28 in Ningbo, China.
The 20-year-old Ando, who is a Grade 11 General Academics Strand (GAS) student, has been weightlifting for five years.
Ando shared that she started to fall in love with weightlifting when she was 15 years old. She said she won a silver medal in the Batang Pinoy 2014, her very first competition.
Ando said she was introduced to weightlifting by her coach Gary Hortelano.
“Training-training lang to pag-una, but gi-encourage ko sa akong coach,” said Ando.
Her coach, according to Ando, motivated her to do well on her training and to join the varsity team since it would be of great help for her to finish her education. It was also because of this sport that Ando was able to travel to different countries like Uzbekistan, Korea and Indonesia.
Ando shared that among the international competitions she competed in, it was the Asian Cup and Asian Inter-Club Weightlifting Championships in Korea that she would never forget since it was the first international competition where she won a medal. She has won a total of four silvers and two bronze.
Aside from being part of the UC Webmasters varsity team, Ando is also part of the Team Pilipinas weightlifting team, which also has six other members from Cebu.
Ando, who wants to follow in Hidilyn Diaz’s footsteps, is very focused on her training for her upcoming competition abroad.
Diaz won the a silver medal in the Rio Olympics and a gold medal in the Asian Games 2018.
Aside from Ando, the other gold medalists in the women’s division are RJ Polan in the Under 45-kilo division, Mary Clair Saga in the Under 49-kilo division, Niña Abigail Patalinghug in the Under 59-kilo division, Helly Soza in the Under-70 kilo division.
The Cesafi tournament had 49 weightlifters from the University of San Carlos, UC and the Sisters of Mary Boystown.
Meanwhile, Tiukinhoy said their main objective for bringing back the weightlifting tournament in Cesafi was for the young weightlifters to have an avenue to show their skills and to be discovered by universities.
“Our objective here is for all of you to finish college through this sport. The sport can help you become varsity members in the different colleges and universities,” said Tiukinhoy in his speech.