Hidilyn Diaz leads Philippine weightlifting team for 2025 SEA Games

Hidilyn Diaz is set to return to the Southeast Asian Games stage as she banners the Philippine weightlifting team to the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand this December.

The Philippines' first Olympic gold medalist will see action in the women's 58kg division, marking her SEA Games homecoming since missing the previous edition in Cambodia to focus on her qualification to the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, she did not qualify in the said edition of the Summer Games.

Diaz had won back-to-back gold medals in the 2019 and 2022 editions of the SEA Games, ruling the 55kg division during the country's hosting in 2019 before defending her title in 2022 in Vietnam.

In 2023, however, Diaz had to skip the biennial meet to focus on the Asian Weightlifting Championships, an Olympic qualifier that coincided with the Cambodia SEA Games.

Joining the 34-year-old Diaz-Naranjo in Thailand are Rosegie Ramos (48kg), Jhodie Peralta (53kg), Elreen Ando (63kg), and Kristel Macrohon (69kg) in the women's team while Fernando Agad Jr. (60kg), Dave Pacaldo (65kg), Albert Delos Santos (71kg), and John Dexter Tabique (94kg) banner the men's side. 

—JKC, GMA Integrated News