The Philippines is celebrating Olympian Hidilyn Diaz conquest last night as she became the first Filipino athlete to ever win a gold medal after dominating the competition in her women’s weightlifting 55kg weight class.
Since the Philippines first entered the Olympics in 1924, the country had not won a gold medal at the Games until Diaz’s record breaking performance. In the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, Diaz took the Silver medal in the said competition.
During his performance last night, Diaz lifted a record-breaking 127 kg (280 lbs) in the clean and jerk event which had maxed out at 125 kg (275.6 lbs).
As part of the reward of Diaz’ win, she is expected to received at least P33 million combined cash from the government and private sector.