After record, Jeremy seeks Asia high
He is only 17 but the Mizoram lifter is determined to make drastic improvement and qualify for the Olympics
KOLKATA: Four months ago when Jeremy Lalrinnunga tattooed his left arm, he decided two dates would have to be part of it. The first—11-11-2011—is the day he started lifting weights. The second—7-7-1988—is when his father began boxing.
Depicted in Roman numbers, the first date headlines a weightlifter and is closer to his elbow; below it is a boxer at work.
Like father Lalneihtluanga, a light flyweight who won national medals for Mizoram in the 1990s, Lalrinnunga wanted to be a boxer. The gloves came off due to peer pressure.
“I would box but was not a regular when a weightlifting academy started in Aizawl. My friends joined it and asked me to. I liked it and asked my father whether it would be okay if I took up weightlifting. He agreed. After one month, my first coach Malsawma organised joining ASI (Army Sports Institute) in Pune,” says Lalrinnunga. He was 10 then.
Lalrinnunga is 17 now. Since October 2018 when he won the 62kg gold at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Lalrinnunga and world records have been interchangeable in the youth and junior categories. At last April’s Asian championships, he broke 15 records including three world youth and three senior national marks. In Qatar last December, Lalrinnunga broke 27 records—three youth world, three Asian youth and six Commonwealth—on way to his personal best of 306kg (140+166).
On Monday at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra here, after a sub-par show in snatch, Lalrinnunga set a national record in the clean and jerk en route the 67kg gold in the senior national weightlifting championships. He aggregated 299kg, 132kg in snatch and 167kg in clean and jerk.
“I had pain in my left shoulder,” he says.
Lalrinnunga’s life changed after Buenos Aires.
“That was massive. After that, India coach (Vijay
Sharma) moved me to the national camp for senior lifters. I hadn’t participated in senior nationals and I was representing India in international events, Asian championships, the EGAT Cup (in Thailand) where I won silver.
“Coach ensured my weight increased to 67kg and in two months, I began to notice improvements,” he says.
Younger brothers Jacob and James—Lalrinnunga is third of five boys—now want to be weightlifters, says Lalneihtluanga,
an employee with Mizoram’s Public Works Department. They aren’t the only ones.
“SAI (Sports Authority of India) gave me a weightlifting set which I set up in my neighbourhood in Aizawl,” says Lalrinnunga. “Interest spiked after my gold in Buenos Aires. Around 15 now train there under my first coach. There are preconceived notions about weightlifting: you will be stunted, your muscles will tear, bones will break. So, mothers were wary. Now, mothers back home are not saying no.”
India footballer Jeje Lalpekhlua, also from Mizoram, follows him on Instagram, he says. Wearing a black cap back to front and black studs, Lalrinnunga though says he has not changed as a person. Save that he doesn’t play left back in kickabouts back home. Or badminton, basketball and volleyball.
“Coach is worried about injury. Now, it’s only weightlifting,” he says.
Such focus is necessary if Lalrinnunga is to reach his goal of improving 10kg each in snatch and clean and jerk at April’s Asian championships.
“That will help me qualify for the Olympics. In 2018, 2020 Olympics wasn’t on my mind. But I don’t want to go to the Olympics just to participate,” he says.
Based on the last world championships where the 67kg bronze medallist—North Korea’s Park Jong-ju—aggregated 330kg, anything beyond gaining experience in Tokyo will take some doing. That’s what Sharma wants him to go to Tokyo for because he says it will help in the journey to be a medal contender in Paris 2024. But stressing on ‘umeed’ (hope), Lalrinnunga says, “If I try, if I fight for it, who knows what will happen.”
Between now and April, Lalrinnunga says his training and diet will change. Now he usually has five-six eggs, brown bread with jam and oats for breakfast; chicken, brown rice, lots of salad and dal for lunch and a dinner that’s heavy on protein.
“In the evening, our coach serves us either pork, which is a favourite, salmon or prawn in his room.” Steamed chicken momos are reserved for cheat days, he says.
Justin Beiber and Ed Sheeran are favourites but equally important in helping him unwind are reading the Bible and evangelical music.
After the national record here, Lalrinnunga says, “those representing Mizoram got together and prayed.” “Then Jeremy treated us to dinner at the big hotel he is staying,” says Lalneihtluanga.