‘ No dearth of talent in India’
Weightlifters Bhaktaram Desti ( gold), C. Dinesh ( silver) and Subhash Lahre ( bronze) were presented their medals of the 50kg class by India’s sole Olympic weightlifting medallist, Karnam Malleswari.
None of the winners were even born when Malleswari took bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the women’s 69 kg class with a total lift of 240 kg. The presence of Malleswari and the legendary Kunjurani Devi on the opening day of the weightlifting event at the KD Jadav arena caused considerable excitement among the participants.
Malleswari, who retired after the 2004 Athens Olympics, has been appointed as the weightlifting observer by the union government. Since then she has had to balance work and manage her academy.
“I’ve been busy balancing my work at the Food Corporation of India and running my weightlifting academy that I have set up in Yamunanagar in Haryana,” said Malleswari. “It’s great to see two kids from my academy participating here.
“More than their performances, it is the exposure to these big events that counts at this age. Through games like these I want more youngsters take up the sport. There is no dearth of weightlifting talent in India, they just need exposure.”
Malleswari, also a two- time world championship gold medallist ( 1994, ’ 95) wants to take the sport to the grassroots level by supporting junior athletes. “Most of the kids at my academy come from very humble background. Prince’s ( participant in the boys’ 50kg class) father sells vegetables and the other girl from my academy also comes from a similar background. My biggest challenge is to provide these kids with a proper diet. It is great to see the young talent on show in these Games.
“Weightlifting hasn’t changed much from my time. I got bronze in Sydney. Athletes still win medals at the world championships and the Olympics by lifting similar weights, but things have become more advanced with respect to facilities, training and diet,” she said. “There are better medical and dietary supplements available than they were in my time. We didn’t have the same kind of exposure to these things. Yet, I remember going to my first nationals in 1990 where I broke eight national records.”