BOHOLANA Barbell Breaker ng Pilipinas, Vanessa Sarno is a force to be reckoned with as she prepares to take home a medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics in the women’s weightlifting 71kg category.
The 21-year-old first-time Olympian continues to break her own 104kg record in snatch after winning her second gold in the Southeast Asia Games with 105kg in 2023, as stated on the Olympics’ official website.
Her multiple victories have caught the attention of the public, labeling her as the “heir apparent” to Hidilyn Diaz, the Philippines’ first Olympic gold medalist.
Yet, in the rise of Sarno’s success, her triumphs in weightlifting stem from a passion kindled from her childhood.
Hailing from Bohol, Vanessa Sarno was raised as a fisherman’s daughter and the second eldest of four siblings. Yet, this did not hinder her in pursuing weightlifting, at 9-years-old she started training in a makeshift gym with her cousins’ influence.
Unfortunately, Sarno had to take on a more active role in her family after her father’s abandonment. Seeing her mother’s struggle to make ends meet, Sarno was inspired and motivated to work hard to help her family, as stated in an article from the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).
In the same article, it was mentioned that this hurdle in life almost cut her weightlifting career short as she contemplated dropping it. But her coach, Nick Jaluag, and fellow weightlifter, Fernando Agad Jr., pushed her to pursue her athletic career.
From there, her hard work bore the fruits of her labor as her wins reached international soil. Her recent feat ensured her a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
According to Rappler, her stint in the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Cup in Phuket Thailand on April 7, served as her last qualifying event for the Olympic weightlifting–the young Boholana, achieving her aspiration of reaching the Olympics.
Sarno placed fifth in the competition, surpassing her national record in snatch with 110kg and 136kg in clean and jerk for a total of 245kg.
In the same article, she was able to retain her spot in the OQR after her 249kg total lift in the IWF Grand Prix in Doha, Qatar back in December.
The young weightlifter secured her spot in the Olympics after finishing within the top ten of the Olympic Qualifying Rankings (OQR) for the 71kg division, reported by One Sports.
Sarno’s wins are no course of sheer luck but of her persevering strength in bringing honor to the country.
From her earliest competitions in weightlifting, her skills show great promise, dominating the field at the young age of 12.
In a 2019 The Bohol Chronicle report, Sarno won three golds in the 2015 Indonesian Weightlifting Championships in Indonesia and one gold and one silver in the 2018 EGAT King’s Cup International Weightlifting Championships in Thailand.
From there, her achievements show no bounds with her win of being the overall champion with gold in the 71kg youth women’s division with a total lift of 209kg in the 2019 Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships hosted in Pyongyang, North Korea.
In the competition, Sarno received a gold for her snatch with 91kg and a silver for her clean and jerk by lifting 118kg, stated in the Bohol Chronicle article.
Her thirst for gold achieved international heights with the 2020 International Weightlifting Federation Online Youth Cup, Sarno took home three gold medals at the age of 17 in the women’s 71kg contest, insidethegames writes.
Scoring a perfect record in the snatch to lift with 93kg, followed by 118kg in the clean and jerk. Sarno clinched the gold with a lift total of 211kg.
In the same year, Vanessa Sarno also took the win in the women’s 71 kg division for the 2020 Asian Weightlifting Championships.
Scoring gold overall with gold with a total lift of 229. Her clean and jerk results in a 128 kg lift and a silver for snatch with a lift of 101 kg, noted in the 2020 Asian Results Book for the said competition.
At 19, Sarno sweeps the competition by bagging the gold with a total lift of 216 kg for both snatch with 96 kg and clean and jerk with 121, powering through a high fever after hospitalization, written in a Manila Bulletin article.
The young athlete is setting the standard for her fellow athletes, surpassing her record for 71 kg in the women’s division with her wins in the Southeast Asian Games (SEA) and 2024 IWF World Cup.
In the 2023 Southeast Asian Games, the Olympics’ official website reports, Sarno topped her 104 kg record in 2021 with a 105 kg lift in the snatch–a clean win with a gold overall after a total lift of 225 kg after her 120 kg clean and jerk.
Her latest victory with the 2024 IWF World Cup leaves no room to question her place in the Paris Olympics.
With her back-to-back successful conquests in women’s weightlifting, will Vanessa Sarno take this win streak to the Olympics?
Her achievements in multiple competitions in her weight category beg the question of whether Sarno can take this momentum to Paris and sustain it to be the country’s second time to win an Olympic gold.
Or will the weight of her previous wins prove too heavy for her to lift?
Sarno, along with her fellow Filipino athletes who qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics has been at Metz, France since June 22 for their final phase of preparations, Manila Bulletin writes.
Set on August 9, the Olympian weightlifting for Women’s 71 kg will be held in the South Paris Arena 6. The five-day competition will start on the 7th of August and will end on the 11th.
With reports from Catherine Juvida
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