Cricket is considered a religion in India as it has given us sporting legends more often than not. Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli et al have made India proud on the world stage through decades.
At the same time, cricket is the sole reason why other sports got neglected in the sub-continent for years. People almost started believing that sports stars — apart from cricket — are a bunch of no-hopers, particularly after India’s meteoric fall in hockey.
India wasn’t a force to reckon with as they faltered in Olympics time and again. It was so much so that India returned empty handed in three editions of the Olympics (Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992), before Leander Paes won bronze in Atlanta 1996. Since then, India never had to look back.
Karnam Malleswari bagged a bronze in weightlifting in Sydney 2000 to become first Indian woman to achieve such feat thus putting India in the world map of weightlifting. Taking cues from Paes and Malleswari, many other athletes thereafter made their presence felt in the mega show. And, weightlifting slowly became a loved sport in India.
Medals started coming in events like Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and World Championships, but suddenly the sport received a major jolt when three weightlifters S Sunaina, Sanamacha Chanu and Pratima Kumar were found guilty of doping in 2000.
However, the resurrection did take place and the lifters were again back on track in some time to continue Malleswari’s legacy. With the likes of Sanjita Chanu, Mirabai Chanu, Satish Sivalingam and Jerry Lalrinnunga excelling at the world stage for the past one year, the fans can again hope for another Olympic medal in Tokyo next year.
Similarly, the sport made its presence felt in the state when Katulu Ravi Kumar from Behrampur district clinched gold and silver in the 2010 (New Delhi) and 2014 (Glasgow) Commonwealth Games respectively. Ravi Kumar also made it to the Indian weightlifting team for the London Olympics 2012.
Ravi Kumar’s achievement and success at the international level gave the much-needed fillip to the sport in Odisha, which has been taken forward by the likes of Jhili Dalabehera and Saraswati Rout. While Jhili won silver in the Asian Weightlifting Championship earlier this year in China, Saraswati made it to the Indian national camp for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games last year.
Odisha, which has been bestowed the tag of ‘Sports Capital of India’ because of its successful hosting of some of the biggest international competitions — Men’s Hockey World Cup (2018) and Asian Athletics Championships (2017) being the notable ones — also lent their support in making the sport grow in the state.
The state marked a red-letter day in history when CM Naveen Patnaik launched five High Performance Centres (HPC) earlier this year as part of 10 Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) that were signed last year.
Among the five, weightlifting was one of them and got its first HPC when Indian cricket legend Anil Kumble-backed Tenvic Sports, who along with KJS Ahluwalia Group, came forward to promote the sport in the state.
Odisha has been performing well in weightlifting and we have a good potential to create medal-winning international weightlifters. The state government decided to give priority to weightlifting and therefore the High Performance was initiated
Vineel Krishna, Director, Sports and Youth Services department, Govt of Odisha
Incidentally, weightlifting which has started its operations at KIIT campus on an interim basis is the only HPC which is operational till now with Iranian Olympian Kazem Panjavi at the helm. Other disciplines like athletics, badminton, hockey, football, sports management are still in work mode.
“We have checked around approximately 14 venues and this one attracted me the most. I love the place and with the kind of support I am getting from the authorities, it helps me to express myself fully in making these guys (budding weightlifters) into world beaters,” Panjavi said while taking a break from training.
Located at the first floor of the Sports Fitness Centre of the KIIT campus 8, the centre boasts of all the top level accessories that a HPC requires. As far as the weightlifters are concerned there are a total of 19 (11 girls and 8 boys) currently who all have been scouted from various districts by Panjavi and his associates.
Apart from Panjavi, the support staff also includes Bibekananda Sahu, Archana Gupta and Venkata Lakshmi. They have also roped in national award-winning sports nutritionist Rashmi Cherian. To add more to that authorities and state government have also come forward to provide education to these athletes.
“To be very honest, I was looking for challenge because in UK (where he owns club called ‘Stars for the Future’) the things I wanted to do, I wasn’t able to do because situations there were holding me back. I knew that in India it would be hard in terms of weather and other things, but I took up the challenge and we started from scratch,” Panjavi said when asked why he opted to come to India.
Being one of the hardest sports, weightlifting requires lot of technique and hard work to be successful. One bad move and you go completely down in just a few seconds with body posture being significant.
“Earlier, the athletes used to have back injuries because of push press. Back then what the athletes used to do is, they had to lean back, the legs should needed to be straight which pressurised the lower spine thus creating a lot pain,” the Iranian elaborated.
“But now techniques have changed and I am amazed to see how these young kids are doing it perfectly. I have two small kids — Tikimohini (10 years) and Tulasi (11) — and they lift exactly the same way that I want. Give them few years’ time, these two will kill everyone in their weight category.”
Panjavi also stated that the future of the bunch of kids he is having at his disposal is very bright. “I have a three-year contract and my target is to prepare these guys for the top level,” he stated.
“I have been training them for four months now and the shape they are in, they can take all the medals at the state level. But they need more time, probably two-three years to prove themselves at the national or international level,” said the Iranian, who has performed for his country at the international level for seven years.
I come from a very poor family. My brother also used to pursue weightlifting but due to financial reasons he was unable to do. I want to fulfil by brother’s dreams by bringing medals for the state and country, and I believe i can do so under Kazem sir
Tikimohini Mallik
Panjavi makes his wards train two times a day with lots of other activities in the middle so that their training doesn’t feel monotonous. The 53-year-old also makes individual programmes ready for each and every athlete based on their requirements and conditions. Once an athlete completes the programme a fresh one is made based upon his/her condition.
“We focus mainly on the endurance, strength and flexibility of the body. We try to generate strength first on every athlete’s body because that’s what this sport is all about,” physio Dinesh Behera said.
It is almost all the coach’s job to motivate his wards all the time and Panjavi has his own style to do so.
“I make them watch Indian weightlifters competing at the Olympics in YouTube, because that’s what they are training for. In free time I also make them watch inspirational sports movies like ‘Dangal’, ‘Mary Kom’ , ‘Sultan’ to name a few, to help them understand that they are doing all these for their country,” he added.
It’s an honour to train under Kazem sir. He is like a father figure to not just me but to all of us. Being weightlifting an individual sport, I hope to give my best under sir excel to great heights
Sundarray Gollari
However, in any Olympic sport, doping is one area which every athlete needs to be educated – Mirabai being the recent victim. “Of course we conduct classes where we talk on doping. I along with the doctor sit with these athletes and make them understand what the after effects of doping are,” the Iranian explained.
“The guys (Tenvic) have done a very good job in making a handbook of all the medicines that are banned, but I want them to make an application, so that anyone who is taking any medicine can easily check on their mobile phones whether they should take that or not. It makes the job easier.”
However, Panjavi lamented the lack of weightlifting infrastructure in the rural areas which makes his job harder when the athletes come back from lay-offs.
“Due to lack of infrastructure back home, these athletes when they come back from home, they lose half of the strength which I made them gain here. So I had to start from scratch again,” Panjavi laments.
The way Panjavi is putting his hard efforts into making these athletes from kids to stars is commendable and we wish him all the best for his journey.
In this kind of sports where athletes come from rural villages, parental teaching is also important. In the current batch, there were two-three athletes who went home during a break and never came back and that’s only because of their parents’ concern. Parents should encourage their kids to take up any sport
Kazem Panjavi