
By REYNALD MAGALLON
The Philippine powerlifting team won four golds, two silvers and five bronze medals for a historic finish in the 2021 World Classic Powerlifiting Championships held in Halmstad, Sweden.
Leading the way for the national team was Veronica Ompod, who took four gold medals after all of the other competitors failed to make weight in the 43kg Women’s Junior Division.
She lifted a total of 255kg to win the gold in squat, bench press, deadlift and total weight. Ompod was the top seed in the division, being a two-time world record breaker in her sub-junior days, according to the Powerlifting Association of the Philippines.
Joyce Gail Reboton bagged a silver and a bronze in the under 76kg Open category. She lifted a new personal best of 105kgs in bench press to take home the silver while also tallying 187.5kgs in squat and 250kgs lifts in deadlift, respectively, to finish with a total of 497.5kgs which was good for the bronze medal – a first for the country in world open total in classic powerlifting and the second in any world open total.
The only other Filipino to achieve the feat was powerlifting legend Lily Pecante who made this historic medal win in the Open total with a bronze at the 2009 World Open Powerlifting Championships.
Aside from Ompod and Reboton, fellow Filipino powerlifters Agustin Lorenzo and Jane Erasmo all won medals in the tournament.
Lorenzo bagged the silver medal in bench press in the 74kg Sub-Junior division after he successfully lifted 147.5kgs, besting bronze medalist Kujala Elmeri of Finland who registered 135kgs. Kalogjera Teo of Croatia nabbed the gold with a Sub-Junior world record of 170 kg.
Erasmo, on her first international stint, earned four bronzes in the 47kg Women's Sub-Junior division after lifting 85kgs sin squat, 132.5kgs deadlift, 60kgs in bench press to finish third in each category and in total.