A weight off his shoulders

Having joined the Uttarakhand Police on the basis of his performance as a junior,his career stagnated with things coming to a head ahead of the 2009 Police athletics championships. “I had trained with dedication for several months and despite that I was unable to get past the semi finals. It got frustrating that despite putting so much effort,I was unable to get any outcome. It was at that point of time that I decided that it was time to make a shift in my career,” he says.

Weightlifting,he says,felt like the right although unobvious choice. “While preparing for the Police Games,I would do weight training in Modinagar,and the coach there,Vijay Sharma who also coached the Northern Railways team said that I should shift to weightlifting,” he says. It helped that the first time he lifted weights under the eyes of Sharma,Parihar was able to half squat 150kg,clean and jerk 100kg and snatch 80 kg. “Since I didn’t have anything to lose,I agreed. I asked my DIG and he too agreed,” says Parihar.

A difficult change

It wasn’t a smooth shift. In athletics Parihar needed to keep his upper body as loose as possible while tightening the muscles of his lower body. Weightlifting required his arms and back to be equally stiff failing which,the momentum of the heavy weights being hoisted would propel them up and over his head. ” The first couple of weeks were the toughest. Because I was not used to lifting heavy weights on a consistent basis,my shoulder picked up a number of injuries. I would keep pulling my muscles. Additionally I also came to realise that the ball of my palm just below the thumbs were very thick. That meant that the bar would almost always settle just below my fingers,” he says. In explanation he shows the palms of his hand with large calluses only partially healed on the parts he describes.

That though wasn’t the worst part. That was when a fellow athlete from the Uttarakhand Police competed in last years’ Police games and finished second in the 100m. His timing was also 10.8 seconds- the timing that made Parihar switch careers. Parihar though persisted. In the 2011 Police games,he finished fifth and this year he finally made the podium– his first medal in any sporting event for his employers. “It has assured that I will be promoted to head constable,” he says.

Desptite his late start,Parihar is upbeat about the future. “I always had a naturally powerful body. So I have never had much trouble performing the clean and jerk because that routine needs just power to be performed well. Where I still struggle is in performing the snatch which is an extremely technical lift. I was able to lift 145 kg in the clean and jerk while only 110 kg in the snatch. With enough experience,my lifts in the snatch will also improve,” he says.