Four lifters injured, medal hopes bleak
NEWDELHI: The chances of Indian weightlifters ending their Asian Games medal drought in Jakarta look bleak. With less than a month to go for the Games, four of the five lifters training at NIS, Patiala are on the injury list.
Barring Rakhi Halder (women’s 63kg), the other three male lifters — Sivalingam Sathish Kumar, Ajay Singh (77kg) and Vikas Thakur (94kg) — are suffering from minor injuries.
Commonwealth Games champion in women’s 48kg Mirabai Chanu was considered a medal prospect, but a back injury has diminished her chances.
In the last six months, Mirabai’s back-to-back gold-medal lifts of 194kg and 196kg in international meets had raised hopes of India ending its two-decade long drought .
However, chief national coach Vijay Sharma has ruled out a podium finish for the world champion, saying she hasn’t trained to potential for the last six weeks, and it’s unlikely she will be able to recover lost ground. “It will be a challenging task,” he said.
In 1998, Karnam Malleswari’s silver in 63kg was the last time an Indian female lifter had a podium finish in the continental games.
During the 1994 Games in Hiroshima, the women’s team had won four medals. Gurunathan Muthuswamy was the last male lifter to have won medal, a bronze in 52kg in 1986 Seoul Asian Games.
Former chief coach and member of the Indian Weightlifting Federation selection panel Pal Singh Sandhu said, “After the CWG in Gold Coast, lifters had extended celebrations thus missing 3-4 weeks of training.
Meanwhile, Mirabai was quoted by PTI as saying she will be fit in time for the Jakarta Asian Games.