Elreen Ando’s time will have to continue to wait.
Ando collected a back-to-back silver medal finish in the women’s under-64 kg of the 31st Southeast Asian Games weightlifting competitions, Saturday at the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Centre in Hanoi, Vietnam.
It was a tight battle between the Filipino Olympian and Vietnam’s Phạm Thị Hồng Thanh after the snatch as only one kilogram separated the two. The hometown bet with 104 kg, while Ando is with 103.
With the memories of the incident of the 2019 Games — of the Filipino standout losing the gold to Phạm due to a time violation — Ando still took time in her third and final attempt at 125 kg in the clean and jerk.
Ando got some time but could not completely raise the bar overhead, handing Phạm the gold and much to the delight of the crowd in attendance.
The Vietnamese retained her SEA Games gold with a total of 230 kg, which is a new Games record.
Meanwhile, 2019 under-71 kg bronze medalist Tsabitah Alfan Ramadani kept the bronze on the Indonesian side — won in 2019 by Bernadicta Babela Mei Study.
This is the country’s third medal in the Games’ weightlifting competition.
