MELAKA, Nov 6 (Sin Chew Daily) — Philippines’ Olympic weightlifting gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz is back at Kesang Tua, Jasin, for training in preparation for the 2021 World Weightlifting Championships to be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from December 7 to 17.

The winner of women’s 55kg class at Tokyo Olympics was undergoing training at a simple garage in Kesang Tua for nine months under her coach Ahmad Janius Abdullah due to the lockdown imposed to curb the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

She returned to the Philippines after winning the first Olympic gold medal for her home country.

Diaz arrived at KL International Airport on October 30 and has since completed seven days of mandatory quarantine.

Diaz, who sees Kesang Tua as her second home, hopes to develop a weightlifting training center here with the help of various interested parties, said her coach Ahmad Janius.

“She will be bringing in two to three athletes from the Philippines to Jasin for training as well as training a Malaysian athlete Nur Atikah Mahamad Sobri for the next Olympics,” he said.

Ahmad Janius has also received request from a Sri Lankan weightlifter several days ago to undergo training in Jasin.

Ahmad Janius said his mother-in-law’s house where the garage is located would be undergoing upgrading next week to incorporate a jogging track and hostel facilities.

The upgrade cost is about RM500,000, and Diaz will contribute RM100,000. Ahmad Janius is still looking for sponsors including for the training equipment.

“The equipment is costly as a set of weightlifting equipment will be around RM25,000.

“We plan to have five to six sets of the equipment and our budget has not covered other facilities.

“We will unveil a blueprint for short, medium and long term plans to upgrade the facilities so that we can train weightlifters to win in Olympics,” he said.