Elreen Ando gave her Paris 2024 campaign everything, as she recorded a new personal best to close her event in high spirits.
Although Elreen Ando’s hopes for an Olympic medal may have to wait another four years, her performance in the Paris 2024 women’s 59kg weightlifting category is one that she can definitely be proud of.
After lifting a total of 230kg, she finished the event in sixth place. Not a podium finish, but still, this was Elreen at her best, as she matched her personal best in snatch, and even surpassed her personal record in clean and jerk.
The Filipino managed to lift 100kg in snatch to open her Paris Olympics campaign. Despite failing her first attempt, Ando managed to find success on her second go to get on the board. For her final attempt in the event, she made the courageous decision to go up to 102kg in hopes of recording a new personal best, however, was unsuccessful. Still, her 100kg lift matched her current personal best and she closed snatch in 8th place.
Her final ranking would all depend on her performance in clean and jerk.
Going for 130kg in her opening clean and jerk attempt was a bold move on Ando’s part, whose personal best was only 128kg prior to this event. She struggled on her first go as she was unable to get under the bar in the clean. In her second attempt, she buckled before the jerk to record another no-lift.
It was then go big or go home for Elreen, and she went big. In her third and final attempt at 130kg — 2kg heavier than her previous personal best — she took her time after pulling off the clean, and was finally able to succeed in the jerk to secure a new record for herself!
She walked off with a big smile on her face.
Ando found herself in a tough pack of athletes in her event today. Five of the 12 competitors surpassed the previous Olympic record of 103kg in snatch, which has now been reset to 107kg thanks to Shifang Luo. In addition, China’s Luo also set the new Olympic record for clean and jerk of 134kg. This shows the caliber of the competition she found herself up against.
But there was even more pressure added to Ando’s plate prior to the Games.
Having earned her ticket to the 2024 Olympics by outperforming Hidilyn Diaz in the Olympic qualifying round earlier this year, Ando is widely considered to be the future of Philippine weightlifting.
Tonight, she can definitely say that she put it all on the line.
With this sixth-place finish, not only does Ando improve upon one of her previous records, but she also improves on her seventh-place finish from Tokyo, where she competed in the women’s 64kg category.