Olympian Elreen Ando made a good account of her step-down to the women’s 59 kg, finishing in fifth place among 27 competitors in the 2021 World Weightlifting Championships, Saturday at the Uzbekistan Sports Complex in Tashkent.
Ando went down a weight class lower from 64 kg, where she competed in last July’s Olympic Games. Still, she was lifting comparable weights from this division.
The Cebuana lifter ended with a total of 214 kg.
The 30th Southeast Asian Games silver medalist in the 64-kg class started well, lifting easily 93 kg. She then added three kilograms and then two more, eventually ending the snatch with 98 kg.
Nonetheless, Ando found it hard to come up with 116 kg on her first two attempts at the clean and jerk. She miscalculated on her grab on the first try, before failing to hold the overhead in the following. The 23-year-old standout then mustered all her strength to finally get it up and come up with the result.
Reigning world champion and world record holder Kuo Hsing-Chun of Chinese Taipei, as expected, dominated the field and captured three medals at stake. She took another world title with a total of 230 kg, off a silver-medal take of 100 on snatch and a golden-medal take of 130 on clean and jerk.
Colombia’s Yenny Alvarez bagged the total silver with 226 kg, while Olga Te of RWF completed the podium with 218 kg.
