CHENNAI: Jyoshna Sabar created a youth Asian record for total lift at the ongoing Asian Youth Weightlifting Championships in Doha on Friday. She clinched a gold each in snatch (60kg), clean and jerk (75kg) and overall category (60+75=135kg) in the 40kg section at the event.
Medal at an international meet is not new for the 16-year-old tribal girl from Odisha as she had already pocketed bronze medals at the 2023 edition of the continental event. Those medals came a couple of months after she won medals at the 2023 IWF Youth World Championships (bronze in total & silver in snatch). She bettered the results at the 2024 IWF Youth World Championships (silver in total and snatch and bronze in clean & jerk). What matters the most is her record overall lift of 135kg at the Doha event.
Hailing from Pekata village of Rayagada tehsil in Gajapati district, Jyoshna's life changed for the better almost six years ago when she was spotted by scouts during a talent hunt drive at her Gram Vikas residential school in Kankia, Ganjam village. A year later, she shifted to the high-performance centre run by the state government in partnership with Tenvic Sports.
"When we visited her village last year after her medals at the youth worlds, we noticed how difficult it was to reach there. Only one bus plies to the village. Her house is almost 10 kms from the bus stop," K Ravi Kumar, Olympian and secretary-general of the Odisha Weightlifting Association, told this daily.
"Her house was built with support from a cliff, which constituted one of the four walls. Father Kirttan Sabar is a small-time farmer while mother Gechameni is a housewife. Given her modest background, it's an achievement for her to come out of that place and win international medals," added Kumar.
Jyoshna trained in Bhubaneswar till last year before being selected for a camp for youth weightlifters at NIS Patiala. "Ramesh Chandra Padhi was her first coach at school. We donated weightlifting equipment to the school and there she trained with Padhi for almost a year. A lot of young girls and boys have been identified during such talent hunt programmes and Jyoshna is one among them. They can be the future of Indian weightlifting," signed off Kumar, who represented India at the 2012 London Olympics.
Besides Jyoshna, India's Payal claimed 45kg gold with a total lift of 155kg (70 snatch + 85 clean and jerk). Her namesake won a bronze medal in the junior girls' 45kg competition, finishing on the podium after managing a total lift of 155 (70 snatch + 85 clean and jerk), while Babulal Hembrom ended third in the 49kg youth boys' section after lifting 197 (88 snatch + 109 clean and jerk).