Sisters Rose Jean and Rosegie Ramos were like a small-town version of a band groupie that used to literally follow around Hidilyn Diaz while she was training back home in Zamboanga City.
Over the weekend, right at the Olympic silver medalist’s own gym and with neighbors watching, they claimed the spotlight for themselves and are on track to doing what Diaz did for her own family.
Philippine weightlifting’s next generation of stars won a gold, three silvers and one bronze medal in the International Weightlifting Federation Online Youth World Cup, a tournament organized in Peru wherein 402 athletes from 62 countries participated in.
“She’s my idol,” said 15-year-old Rose Jean in Filipino after she captured the gold in the 65-kilogram division snatch (63 kg), and took the silver in total (138 kg).
She started taking up the sport at the age of 12, tagging along with 16-year-old Rosegie to train at Diaz’s gym, which is just a 10-minute walk from their home.
“At first I was nervous. I didn’t expect to win. I’m very happy because I made my parents proud,” added Rose Jean who is Grade 9 at Zamboanga City High School.
“It’s difficult because my competition was at 4 a.m., while Rose Jean was at 5 a.m.,” said Rosegie, who captured silvers in the 55-kg division snatch (78 kg) and total (176 kg) and bronze in clean and jerk (98 kg).
“These are among the most promising athletes we have,” said Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas president Monico Puentevella. “It goes to show that Filipinos have what it takes to become world-class.”“We want to help our family because things have been hard for us,” said Rosegie, who stopped after finishing Grade 8 due to financial problems.