Nagpur News :For the first time in the sporting history of the Orange City, Senior National Weightlifting Championships will be organised for both men (66th) and women (29th).
Under the guidance of the Indian Weightlifting Federation, the competition is being jointly organised by Maharashtra State and Nagpur District Weightlifting Association.
The dates for the same are scheduled as March 28 to April 1 and the venue will be the sports campus of Rashtrasant Maharaj Nagpur University situated at Amravati Road.
While interacting with the media recently, secretary of the organising committee Prof. Shrikant Warankar informed that this five-day event will witness national as well as international level participants from all across the country.
Apart from weightlifters from various states, several athletes from Railways, Police, Army etc will also lock horns with each other in the championship.
Warankar also said that along with 500 male and female weightlifters, the event will also be a host to 100 technical officials. When asked about international weightlifters, he said that there will be around 40-45 such athletes in the competition. This list will include participants and medalists from 2012 London Olympics, 2013 Asian Youth games and 2010 Commonwealth Games. Olympian and Commonwealth Silver medalist Ngangbam Soniya Chanu, Gold medalists at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games K. Ravi Kumar and Y Renu Bala, Silver medalist Sukhdev De and 2013 Asian Youth Games Gold medalist RV Rahul will be the main attractions during the weightlifting extravaganza.
He also said that all the athletes will be put up at Amdar Nivas in Civil Lines while the accommodation for the technical officials will be arranged at various city hotels. In lieu to carrying out the competition in a disciplined and honest manner, sports organising veteran Baba Davre will be the chairman of the organising committee while Pramod Valmandre will be the president. Prof. Shrikant Varankar (secretary), Mahesh Lohar (Treasurer), Rajeev Itkelwar (vice-president), Girish Pandav, Rajkumar Tirpude, Mahesh Sabal, Vijay Ghate, Kishore Bagde, Suresh Pachpor, Sachin Mathne, Parag Pathak, Lakshmikant Mleshram and others are also a part of the committee.
Renowned participants
Male: Jamjang Deru (Arunachal Pradesh), TBC Lalchhanhima (Mizoram), Deepak Lather (Haryana), Lalzuidik (Mizoram), Lalu Taku (Arunachal pradesh), Akshay Gaekwad (Maharashtra), Sambo Lapung (Arunachal Pradesh), RV Rahul (Andhra Pradesh), Shivam Saini (Uttar Pradesh), Apurba Chotiya (Assam), Achyutanand Sahu (Odisha), MR Chaitanya, Sukhan De (West bengal), Rustam Sarang (Chhattisgarh), Senthamizh Selvan (Railways).
Female: Chandrika Tarafdar (West bengal), Poonam (Haryana), M Purnima Chanu (Manipur), Jyotimal (West Bengal), E Dikshita (Andhra Pradesh), S Thasna Chanu (Manipur), Manpreet Kaur (Punjab), Pompi Sekiya (Assam), Rekha Rani (Punjab), Aishwarya Kadam (Maharashtra), Swapna Priya Baruh (Assam).
