December 4, 2019- A remarkable day driven by heart, focus, and will as Kristel Macrohon’s Gold Medal outing at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum last Wednesday for the Women’s 71-kg category left the Filipino faithful in awe.
For Macrohon, her 1st place finish is something that was driven by great words of inspiration from 2018 Asian Games Gold Medalist, Hidilyn Diaz.
“Sinasabi rin sa akin ni Ate Hidi (Hidilyn Diaz) na “Kaya mo, gawin mo lang best mo sa lahat Krystel, kaya mo yan.” were the words of inspiration echoed by the veteran weightlifter in Diaz.
(Ate Hidi (Hidilyn Diaz) would tell me, “you can do it, just do your best in everything Kristel, you can do it.”)
“Last na ito, ibigay mo na ang lahat kasi bahala na kung mabuhat man ng kalaban o hindi. Basta binuhat mo lang yung anong dapat buhatin ngayon.” as Macrohon’s coach gave her that additional motivation.
(This is the last one, give everything you have because it does not matter if you opponent lifts successfully or not. What is important is that you lift what you are supposed to.)
True to the message of fellow Filipino Diaz, Macrohon proved to be on top of the competition after successfully lifting the Final Clean and Jerk of 123kg inching her spot at the Glorious Gold.
“Maging katulad din po sa kanya (Hidilyn Diaz).” said Macrohon as she looks to follow the footsteps of her idol and 2016 Summer Olympic Silver Medalist.
(I want to be like her (Hidilyn Diaz))
Kristel Macrohon’s historic Gold Medal feat followed up her idol’s performance as both her and Diaz earned the Philippines’ its first 2 Gold Medals for Women’s weightlifting in the 30th South East Asian Games.
“Sobrang saya po (on winning Gold) nareprensenta ko yung Pilipinas po dito sa SEA Games.” said Macrohon after her historic feat.
(I’m really happy I got the chance to represent the Philippines here at the SEA Games.)
