CHENNAI: Back pain has been troubling weightlifter Sairaj Pardeshi since the IWLF National Senior, Junior and Youth Championships held in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh from December 28, 2023, to January 8, 2024.
It was pretty evident when he came on the platform for the snatch section here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium on Sunday. The 16-year-old lifter from Maharashtra could not lift 124kg in his first and second attempts posing a big threat to his quest for a medal at the ongoing Khelo India Youth Games. Somehow, he managed to lift the weight in his third and last attempt keeping himself in medal contention.
Sairaj, the son of a scrap dealer from Manmad, was placed third among 11 lifters in the 81kg weight category after the snatch section got over. What transpired next left everybody spellbound as Sairaj not only climbed to number 1 place after the clean and jerk section but also lifted 162kg in his final attempt to set a youth national record. He lifted 153kg and 159kg in his first and second C&J attempts.
"After the first failed snatch attempt, I thought I would do it in the next but couldn't. The back pain, that I got during the Itanagar event, was preventing me from lifting the weight," Sairaj told this daily. The setback, however, motivated him to do better in the C&J section and Sairaj gathered all his courage in the next three attempts to rewrite the youth national record.
He had won 81kg gold in the youth section and 81kg silver in the junior section in Arunachal Pradesh. Before that he had won 73kg youth gold in the 2022-23 championships in Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu. He had also pocketed 73kg bronze in the previous edition of the KIYG in Madhya Pradesh.
Sairaj along with his brother Jairaj started weightlifting watching his elder sister Pooja winning laurels in the sport. It was coach Pravin Vyavahare, a teacher at Chhatre New English School in Manmad, who honed the skills of the Pardeshi siblings. "When Pooja started, she faced resistance from her parents. With her father being a scrap dealer, there was pressure on her to do well in academics. But once she excelled, it made life easy for Sairaj and Jairaj," Pravin told this daily.
Sairaj has been training at SAI's National Centre of Excellence in Aurangabad for the past three years. "I started with Pravin sir and then was picked up for the NCOE where coaches DD Sharma sir and Trupti (Parasar) ma'am helped me improve. All my coaches played a key role in my development as a lifter," Sairaj added.
Tea seller’s daughter bags silver
Meanwhile, Assam lifter Panchami Sonowal clinched silver in the women’s 49kg. Panchami fell during the event and had to be stretchered off to the hospital. Her parents — father Luhit Sonowal and mother Budheswari Sonowal — run a small tea stall in Jiadhal Chariali in Dhemaji in Assam.
Panchami, who went into the competition as the youth national record holder in snatch (70kg), had to settle for the second spot with a total lift of 167 kg and in the process also saw her record being broken by Maharashtra lifters Arati Tatgunti and Soumya Dalvi, who eventually took the gold and bronze medal with total hoists of 170 kg and 175 kg, respectively.