CHENNAI: Mahadev Ananda Sargar was busy catering to his customers at his tea, snacks and paan shop in Shinde Mala locality of Sangli (Maharashtra) just like any other day on Saturday morning. There seems to be a calmness around him but deep down in his heart, he was a bit nervous and restless. The reason - his weightlifter son Sanket was scheduled to take the platform and vie for a medal at the ongoing 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in the afternoon.
"We don't have a big television at our place so my wife Rajshree and daughter Kajol will watch Sanket in action at Digvijay Weightlifting Institute. It's where Sanket started training in 2013-14. His trainer and owner of the institute, Mayur Sinhasane, has set up a screen so that other trainees can watch Sanket's exploits," Mahadev told this daily.
Despite Sanket making his CWG debut, his father insists he wouldn't be able to see him perform as there is no one to take care of the shop. He might have come up with a valid reason to skip the event but trainer Mayur believes the father is quite nervous to watch Sanket live. "It can happen to anyone. Mahadev ji doesn't want to be here (institute) as the competition can make him jittery. But it's okay. Everybody has his own way of dealing with pressure and this is Mahadev ji's way of dealing with pressure," said Mayur.
However, all those fears and anxiety gave way to excitement and ecstasy as Sanket opened India's account at the Birmingham event with a silver medal in the 55kg weight category (113kg snatch and 135kg clean & jerk). He was leading the field until his second attempt in clean and jerk when he failed to lift 142kg and also seemed to injure his right elbow. His closest rival from Malaysia Aniq bin Kasdan won the gold with the narrowest margin of 1kg. He was 6kg short of Sanket till the snatch section and narrowed down the gap to 3kg by lifting 138kg in his first C&J attempt. Taking advantage of Sanket's injury, the Malaysian lifted 142kg in his last attempt to finish on the top of the podium. Sri Lanka's Dilanka Ishuru Kumar took home the bronze.
Meanwhile, like Sanket, his younger sibling, Kajol, is also a weightlifter and recently she became the first gold medallist at the 2021 Khelo India Youth Games In Panchkula, Haryana.
For Sanket, it all started when he was in Class 7. "His father brought him to our institute. Initially, he trained under my father for a couple of years and then left weightlifting as he was supposed to take Class X examinations. When he came back, I started training him. We prepared a roadmap for next five years as our goal was to qualify for the CWG," informed Mayur.
The locality where Sanket's family lives was quite notorious back in the 1980s and 90s for criminal activities. It was also one of the most underdeveloped areas in Sangli. All these factors made father Mahadev worried about his children - two sons and a daughter. Also, he doesn't want Sanket to take over the shop from him. Instead, he wants him to excel in sports and get a government job.
"A few lifters from the locality had already made it big and got government jobs. That's what probably motivated Mahadev ji," opined the trainer.
However, there was a time when Sanket's schedule was quite tight. He used to wake up at early in the morning to open the shop and then reach institute to train before leaving for college. "His day used to start quite early and by the time he reached the institute for the evening session, he was exhausted. He couldn't train properly. That's when I requested his father to relieve him of shop responsibilities," said Mayur.
The first success for Sanket came in 2017 when he won 50kg gold in the state-level school championship. The trainer then set a target for Sanket at 55kg to ensure he has a chance to qualify for the Birmingham Games. The hard work put in by the lifter and his team paid off as he finally got selected for the national camp in 2021. He eventually made it to the CWG when he set a Commonwealth record by lifting a total of 256kg at the Singapore Weightlifting International in February earlier this year.