Komal Kohar takes first gold from KIUG 2021, wants to switch to 49-kg category

Bengaluru: Komal Kohar of Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak clinched the first gold medal of the Khelo India University Games here at Jain University Global Campus on Sunday.

In the women's 45-kg category, Komal, a 20 year-old final year Arts student of the KMV College, Sonipat, lifted a total of 160 kg with a break up of 70kg in snatch and 90kg in clean and jerk.

2012 World youth medallist Chandrika Tarafdar of AUB (147: 64 +83) and Pratika Balu Sathe of Shri Sivaji University, Kolhapur (143: 63+80) won silver and bronze medals respectively. Chandrika previously won a medal at the world youth level.

Even though this is the first gold medal of the 10-day Games, this is not the first gold for the petite girl from Sonipat who took to the sport only four years ago.

She joined the Kalpana Chawla Sports Academy at Kharkhoda near her village in Sonipat run by Satyavan Dahiya, a former national lifter himself, who turned to coaching only five years ago. Komal was a 12th standard student then.

Last month, at the Senior National Championships in Bhubaneswar, Komal lifted 160kg to win gold. In the All India Inter-University meet at Guntur, she lifted 158kg to be declared as the best lifter there too. She had also won gold in 2018 Khelo India Youth Games and junior nationals, apart from six more medals at the national level.

"I'm happy to bag the gold medal here too. I would also like to reveal that I'll be switching to 49-kg category soon. I want to compete in the Olympics and bring a medal to my country like Mirabai Chanu did," the gold medallist told The Bridge in a post-lift chat on Sunday.

Mirabhai Chanu had created history for India when she won silver at Tokyo Olympic Games in women's 49-kg category.

To make the switch, Komal, who was brought up by single mother at home, will have to gain four more kilos.

Before that, she will be aiming to bring laurels to the country by winning a medal in the 45-kg category at the World University Games in Chengadu, China from June 26 to July 7 this year.

According to Satyavan, his trainee is very disciplined, focused and has the hunger to be a great lifter at world level. "Komal comes to train at 5.30 am and leaves at 8 am. She returns after attending classes from 4 to 7 in the evening. I have seen not many trainees training like her for five-six hours. If she says she wants to switch the categories, believe her. She will win laurels to India for sure," he said about Komal.

Funnily, Komal took to the sport of weightlifting almost by accident. There was no one to introduce her to the sport but a sports academy was near her home. The academy raised her curiosity while going to school. "Once I sneaked into the academy and confessed to the coach that she wanted to be a lifter," Komal said. The rest, as they say, is soon going to be history. This petite lifter is expected to grab many more headlines in the future.