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Exclusive: Indian weightlifting squad to depart for World Championship 13 days in advance

The Indian weightlifting contingent for the upcoming World Weightlifting Championship will leave for Pattaya, Thailand at least thirteen days earlier so that they can adequately train and acclimatise to the conditions over there.

Exclusive: Indian weightlifting squad to depart for World Championship 13 days in advance
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By

Suhrid Barua

Published: 31 Aug 2019 9:06 AM GMT

The Indian weightlifting contingent for the upcoming World Weightlifting Championship will leave for Pattaya, Thailand at least thirteen days earlier so that they can adequately train and acclimatise to the conditions over there. The Indian squad leaves for Thailand on September 5, while the marquee event kicks off from September 18 and runs till September 27. This is the third time that Thailand is hosting the World Weightlifting Championship after it had successfully conducted it in 1997 and 2007.

The Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) is sending a ten-member weightlifting squad for this big-ticket event comprising six men and four women weightlifters. As far as the men weightlifters are concerned, talented Mizoram youngster and 2018 Olympic Youth gold medallist Jeremy Lalrinnunga will make his World Championship debut at the age of 16 in the 67-kg category. Achinta Sheuli and Ajay Singh, who had finished outside the top twenty in their respective weight categories in the 2018 edition, will be seen in action in the 73-kg and 81-kg categories respectively.

Ragala Venkat Rahul, who had finished 9th in the 2017 edition, will battle it out in the 85-kg category. Vikas Thakur will be making his third World Championship appearance in the 96-kg category – he had finished 12th in the 2017 edition and 35th in the 2014 edition. Pardeep Singh, who took part in the 2017 edition, will slug it out in the 102-kg category.

Weightlifter Vikas Thakur is all set to make his third World Championship appearance in the 96-kg category. (Image source: Facebook / Vikas Thakur Weightlifter)

The four women weightlifters comprise Jhilli Dalabehera (45-kg), Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (49-kg), Sneha Soren (55-kg) and Rakhi Halder (64-kg). Undoubtedly, the country’s biggest medal hopes will rest on Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, who had won the 2017 World Weightlifting Championship gold medal at Anaheim, USA in the 48-kg category. The 25-year-old Manipuri girl carries a fair amount of experience in the international stage – this is her fourth World Championship appearance and she will hope to make an eye-catching performance. Mirabai endured a long injury lay-off in 2018 owing to a back injury and had to miss the 2018 Asian Games and 2018 World Weightlifting Championship. The ace weightlifter is coming off a good run this year, having won gold medals at the EGAT Cup held in Thailand and at the Commonwealth Senior Weightlifting Championship held in Apia, Samoa, although she missed a medal at the Asian Weightlifting Championship in China by a whisker. “ I’m training hard for the World Weightlifting Championship and hopefully I can dish out a good performance in Pattaya,” she said.

The country’s biggest medal hopes will rest on Imphal's Saikhom Mirabai Chanu.

Talented Odisha youngster Jhilli Dalabehera is another exciting prospect to look out for – she had won the 45-kg silver medal at the Asian Weightlifting Championship, after having won the 48-kg bronze medal at the 2018 World Junior Weightlifting Championship at Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Rakhi Halder is making her second World Championship appearance in the 64-kg category after finishing 20th in the same category in the 2018 edition.

Indian weightlifting team chief coach Vijay Sharma sounded realistic about the team’s hopes in the 2019 World Weightlifting Championship. “To be honest, we are not expecting any medals from our men weightlifters – it will be a huge exposure for our men to compete with the world’s best and improve their chances of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Having said that, I must say our weightlifters are working hard to better on their personal best performances and take it from there.”

Sharma has high hopes from talented Mizoram youngster Jeremy Lalrinnunga. “Jeremy is an exciting youngster and he is upbeat about faring well in the World Weightlifting Championship. Of course, the medal hopes are from the country’s women weightlifters. There are huge expectations of a medal from our women weightlifters, especially Mirabai – hope they can live up to the expectations,” said the Indian weightlifting team chief coach.

It may be noted that the Indian weightlifting contingent minus Mirabai Chanu owing to her back injury had returned empty-handed from the 2018 World Weightlifting Championship held at Ashgabat in Turkmenistan. Besides Mirabai Chanu’s gold-winning effort in the 2017 World Weightlifting Championship in USA, the country’s other two gold medals in these championships were won by Karnam Malleshwari in the 1994 and 1995 editions held in Turkey and China. Overall, India has won 16 World Championship medals – three gold, eight silver, and five bronze. Interestingly, all medals are won by our women weightlifters as no Indian men weightlifter till date has been able to manage a podium finish.

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