Another Chinese to succeed Hidilyn’s coach
The Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas is eyeing to tap a foreign coach to mentor and train the national team including the talented women’s squad headed by the youthful Vanessa Sarno with an end goal of striking gold in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
December 26, 2022 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas is eyeing to tap a foreign coach to mentor and train the national team including the talented women’s squad headed by the youthful Vanessa Sarno with an end goal of striking gold in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
SWP president Monico Puentevella said they’re specifically eyeing a female coach to help the national lifters including Sarno, a 19-year-old Tagbilaran, Bohol native who is being groomed as the heiress to Tokyo Olympics gold winner Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo.
“Yes, we already made representation with the Chinese ambassador and embassy for female coach. Waiting for updates,” said Puentevella.
The coach that the association would tap would fill the vacuum left by another Chinese Gao Kaiwen, who coached Diaz-Naranjo for years and turned her into not just an Olympic champion but also a triple World Championships gold medalist.
Gao though had flown back home and may never return.
That is why the SWP is searching for a new coach with hopes of using that same blue print in honing another Filipino with Olympic gold potential into a world-beater like Diaz-Naranjo.
And Sarno is one of those young guns that the SWP is hoping to mold into an Olympic contender as she had already reaped international honors at a very young age after her Asian Championship and Hanoi Southeast Asian Games conquests.
Apart from Sarno, the country has also produced sisters Rosegie and Rose Jean Ramos and Angeline Colonia, who all captured gold in the World Juniors Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan last July.
