Albert Ian delos Santos of the Philippines celebrates during the men's 71kg class of weightlifting at the 2025 Southeast Asian Games, December 14, 2025 at the Chonburi Sports School in Chonburi, Thailand. POC Media
CHONBURI – The Philippines' first weightlifting medal in the 2025 Southeast Asian Games came with a bonus -- an "unexpected" new junior world record.
Albert Ian delos Santos, 19, clinched silver in the men's weightlifting 71kg event on Sunday at the Chonburi Sports School in Chonburi, Thailand.
Delos Santos completed all six lifts in the snatch and clean and jerk, giving him a total of 324kg in the competition.
In his third attempt in clean and jerk, the Zamboanga native broke his own junior world record of 185kg, after getting a good lift at 186kg.
READ: Albert Delos Santos sets junior world record at IWF World
Delos Santos turned emotional after achieving the feat, as he powered through despite falling ill days before the regional showcase.
"To be honest di ko expect. I came here with like what, I was vomiting, I had diarrhea. It was really heavy on my mental but I kept it up. Training was okay, I just had to manifest," he told POC Media.
"It's really a lot. I still need to process this thing so, so much emotion right now. Never thought I'd get this far. It's still my first SEA Games though so not bad," the 19-year-old added.
It was a breakthrough for the Philippine weightlifting team, who saw Olympian Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo fail to make the podium in her weight division earlier on Sunday.
READ: Hidilyn Diaz misses podium in SEA Games return
Delos Santos admitted he was experiencing cramps midway through the snatch and he had not hit 185kg in training after setting a new record in Norway.
"I'm so proud of everything that I've achieved. It's all PR [personal record], 6 for 6, silver medal. It's all a win. It's all a win despite the setbacks and everything," he said.
"I haven't even hit 185[kg] in training in a while. So, it was really a lot for me to get this and reassurance that for the future competitions, I know to trust myself in competitions. I'm a different person when it comes to training and competition. So, that's good reassurance," Delos Santos added.
As he entered the competition, the young weightlifter said his motivation was more than just for personal gain.
"My coach should just have fun, but felt like I just wanted it. I just wanted it. I wanted to lift the team some way or another, to be honest. Seeing them, it's just like, I want to do better for them," Delos Santos said.
"I'm not doing this for myself. I want to do this for them. I love my team. We win as one and yeah, I just wanted to do it for them," he shared.
Thailand's Weeraphon Wichuma won gold clearing 347kg after five successful lifts.
Wichuma likewise set a new world record for clean and jerk, clearing the 195kg lift, to loud cheers from Thai fans present at the venue.
Vietnam's Duc Toan Nguyan clinched bronze with a total of 305kg.
After getting silver in his SEA Games debut, Delos Santos is looking forward to competing again and hopefully lift his way to gold.
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