Lydia Valentín did not reach the World Weightlifting World Championship , ninth in the world rankings. In a season that serves as a precedent for the great appointment of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games , the Spanish had to settle for silver at the Pattaya World Cup (Thailand). His third medal in a World Cup , thanks to the 246 kilos total between snatch and two times. His eighteenth metal between world, European and Olympic Games. The gold went to the Colombian Leidy Solís.

In the category of up to 81 kilos (non-Olympic category), where the Spanish already proclaimed world champion the last two years in Anaheim (United States) and Ashgabat (Turkmenistan), the final did not start well. In snatch he finished off the medals , fifth, after a third null attempt of 112 kilos. Last year, in this discipline, it reached 113 kilos and won first place.

In the two times, with 138 kilos, where he finished third, Lydia watched as Leidy Solis snatched the gold in the Olympic total in his last attempt, in a 142 kilos lift. The first world title for a 29-year-old haltera that will be one of the main rivals of the Berciana in Tokyo.

With the shadow of doping always flying over weightlifting, the World Cup reunited the best, once the sanctions were finalized. Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova, Turkey and China, countries sanctioned after controls in Beijing and London, have already returned to the competition. Although they can only take two male and two female participants to Tokyo 2020. The Venezuelan Leidy Solís, the Korean Suhyeon Kim, the Belarusian Darya Naumava (gold in the last European), the American Jenny Lyvette Arthur and, of course, Lydia Valentín, formed a luxury picture in a discipline in the spotlight for past scandals. Chinese halter Yue Kang, current leader of the ranking, was low due to injury.

On the horizon, the true objective of the Berciana is to hang up the summer that comes her fourth Olympic medal , after the silver in Beijing 2008, the gold in London 2012 and the bronze in Rio 2016. Her final ticket to the Japanese appointment will be decided from November, when the final points that decide the classification are distributed. In Tokyo he will look for his fourth metal, something that only Joan Llaneras (cycling), Saúl Craviotto (canoeing), Andrea Fuentes (synchronized), Mireia Belmonte (swimming) and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (tennis) have achieved in Spain.

Chosen best haltera in 2017 and 2018, Valentín, 34 , has expressed on several occasions his desire to be a champion in what will be his last Games, as she has confirmed. "The real fact is that no Spanish girl has three medals in three different Games. In masculine is the great Saul Craviotto, who has four, and for justice we would have to be him or I. Obviously, I will look for trying to be me" , he said in February, the day he received his gold medal in London after the disqualification of his rivals for doping. The decision is now in the hands of the Spanish Olympic Committee, which will be announced shortly.

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