Elreen Ando puts up impressive weightlifting Olympic debut

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Filipina weightlifter Elreen Ando may not have won gold like Hidilyn Diaz did but she sure impressed a lot in her first-ever Olympic stint.

The representative of the Philippines in the Women’s 64-kg weightlifting category placed seventh overall out of the 10 competing nations.

Ando registered a score of 100-kg during the snatch and had a good chance of entering the top three with her total.

The prized Filipina impressed during the clean and jerk as she lifted a total of 122 kilograms and was in a good position to either clinch the silver or the bronze medal.

However, Ecuador, Great Britain, and Colombia scored better in their clean and jerk and overtook Ando in the initial top three rankings.

Maude Charron of Canada was able to grab the gold medal of the category after lifting a total of 236-kg for the snatch and clean and jerk.

It was a close fight for the sixth to the eighth spot as Marina de la Caridad Rodriguez Mitjan of Cuba only fell 1-kg short of Ando’s total weight lifted.