Vanessa Sarno demonstrated why she is a contender for the Paris Olympics. On Saturday, her stats were much too high for her gold in the Southeast Asian Games. The Cebu-based 23-year-old lurched backward while putting on her support belt and eventually failed at 130kg. Thanh Pham subsequently switched to 126kg and won gold with a Games record of 230 points (104-126).
Before the Bohol-born adolescent took the stage, the SEA Games records for snatch, clean, and jerk and total were 101kg, 123kg, and 227kg, respectively. At the 31st Southeast Asian Games at Hanoi Sports Palace, the Philippines won the women’s 71kg gold.
Vanessa Sarno expressed gratitude
“Thank you to everyone who had faith in me,” Vanessa Sarno expressed her gratitude in Filipino. “I know I’m capable since we had a fantastic training camp” (Rizal Memorial Sports Complex). I knew I’d win the jerk when I got the snatch.”
Vanessa Sarno refocused on greater ambitions as the emotions subsided, charting her path to the Paris 2024 Olympics—she hopes to compete in all Summer Games qualifying tournaments—and cultivating the seeds of desire put in her by Hidilyn Diaz.
“She (Hidilyn) mentioned that if you participate in sports, your life will change (for the better),” Vanessa Sarno remarked, expressing gratitude to the Philippine Sports Commission and MVP Sports. “This is the end.” I won the SEA Games. Thank you to everyone that helped me.”
“This is the face of the future,” said Monico Puentevella of Vanessa Sarno, head of Samahang Weighlifting sa Pilipinas, who beat Thailand’s Khaipandung Siriyakorn (103-120-223) and Indonesia’s Restu Angi (92-120-212).
On the other hand, Vanessa Sarno wants to go home and embrace her family after spending a month locked up in a training camp at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila.
“All I want to do now is have fun,” the Asian champion remarked.
Earlier in the day, Puentevella was enraged by the defeat of Olympian Elreen Ando in the women’s 64-kg event. Which he blamed on a misunderstanding.
The reigning champion, Thi Hong Thanh Pham, pulled off a bluff in the clean .And jerk by increasing her weight from 120kg to 130kg. After failing at 125 kg, the Filipina returned to the platform for 130 kilograms.
Vanessa with record of 230 points
Vanessa demolished all of that with snatch lifts of 104kg and clean and jerk lifts of 135kg. Last December, her total would have earned her gold in the world championships. But she almost lost out on bronze on countback.
The Vietnamese scheme was remarkably identical to Diaz’s Olympic plan. In which she won the historic gold medal with a weight-submission plot that trapped her Chinese opponent, Liao Qiuyun.
Tsabitha Ramadani of Indonesia placed third with 100-116-216, while Ando finished second with 223 (103-120).
“She didn’t have to rush; she had plenty of time,” Puentevella remarked. The situation was reminiscent of the 2019 edition of the biannual meet when Ando ran out of time and lost to the same Vietnamese.
Before departing for Hanoi, Vanessa Sarno told the Philadelphia that she would do everything to earn her first gold in the biannual event.
She ended up winning with a comfortable margin. The Bohol star needed just a few lifts to win gold, and she utilized the rest of her tries to set SEA Games records.
The Philippines’ second gold medal in weightlifting after Diaz, the country’s lone Olympic gold medallist, won the women’s 55kg event.
According to Diaz, Vanessa Sarno is a fresh talent who may be her heir.
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