Elreen Ando secured the Philippines’ first gold medal in weightlifting in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games on Monday at the Chonburi Sports School.

The 27-year-old Ando reasserted her supremacy in the region with lifts of 98 kilograms in the snatch and 127 kgs in the clean and jerk for a total of 229 kgs to claim the women’s 63kg gold.

Ando won the second SEA Games gold of her career, having previously won in the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia in the 59kg category.

The Philippine weightlifting team finally bagged a gold after a silver from Albert Delos Santos in the men’s 71kg on Sunday.

Favored to win the gold medal with her bronze medal win in the World Championships last October, Ando still had anxious moments in the snatch, barely lifting 96 and 98 on her first two attempts before finishing with 102.

In the clean and jerk, the Cebu native had a no lift on her first attempt at 123, but looked untroubled on the second try on the same weight to essentially seal the gold.

Ando added four more kilos in her final attempt for good measure as the Philippine weightlifting contingent, that included Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz celebrated from the sidelines.

“Nadala siguro sa first attempt, mahirap talaga i-lift ‘yung first attempt na nandoon lahat ‘yung kaba, ang dami mong iniisip paano mo siya i-lift. Tapos second attempt, sinabi ko sa sarili ko na alam kong kaya ko ito at binubuhat ko lang ito sa training (I probably got carried away on the first attempt, it’s really hard to lift the first attempt when all the nervousness is there, you’re thinking a lot about how to lift it. Then the second attempt, I told myself that I knew I could do it, and I was just lifting it in training),” the Hangzhou Asian Games bronze medalist said on her first few lifts.

“Pagdating sa clean and jerk, kailangan ko kunin ‘yung gold para may gold naman tayo ngayon (When it comes to the clean and jerk, I need to get the gold so we have gold now),” said Ando, who is coached by Ramon Celis.

Nguyen Thi Thuy Tien of Vietnam won the silver with 98-121-219, while Thanaporn Saetia of Thailand wound up with the bronze with a lift of 98-120-218. (PNA)