Sports

Hidilyn Diaz and a jubilant Monico Puentevella after she won the Olympic gold medal Monday night, July 26.* Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said Hidilyn Diaz winning the Philippines' first-ever Olympic gold medal in Tokyo Monday night, July 26, should be “an inspiration to future athletes, that we Filipinos can compete against the world’s best.” Diaz edged out world champion Liao Qiuyun of China in the women's 55kg weightlifting competition to win the gold. Former Bacolod mayor and representative Monico Puentevella, Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas president, earlier expressed confidence that Diaz would bring home the gold. “Congratulations to Hidalyn Diaz on our very first Olympic Gold for the Philippines,” Lacson said. Lacson also congratulated Puentevella, ...

Team Philippines led by Negrense Ines Lovina Santiago beat athletes from Japan and Australia to win the Ironman Asia Pacific Virtual Race Team Challenge Friday morning. The Philippine Team won $5,000, which they are donating to the Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC) Foundation, said Santiago, who grew up in Pulupandan, Negros Occidental. “Our team raced for the benefit of the NVC Foundation's Mingo Feeding Program. This initiative has continued to feed and monitor malnourished children in impoverished parts of the Philippines while at the same time providing livelihood to local farmers”, she said. The $5,000 will provide 40,000 Mingo meals, a nutritious instant complementary food made of rice, mongo (mung beans), and malunggay (moringa), to malnurished children, she said. ...