All eyes on Iron Lady

Bouyed by their impressive show in the recent Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Indian weightlifters will begin their medal quest in the 14th Asian Games here tomorrow hoping to improve upon their medal collection from the earlier edition.

But the five-member weightlifting team, which has four women and sole male lifter in T Muthu, will find it much more difficult to come anywere near their Manchester haul at the Puyong National University Gymnasium with the fancied Chinese expected to rule the roost like they did in the last edition of the Games in Bangkok. India’s medal prospects have been further diminished with Sydney Olympics bronze medallist Karnam Malleswari deciding not to take part in the meet in order to concentrate on the next Olympics.

The last minute withdrawal of Neelam Sethi Laxmi has also been a big setback for the contingent as she was also a medal prospect.

The Indian challenge in the women’s section will be spearheaded by Kunjarani Devi and Sanamacha Chanu both of whom had made a clean sweep of the gold medals in their respective weight categories in the recent Commonwealth Games. Kunjarani put up a stupendous performance in the 48 kg category in Manchester where women’s weightlifting was introduced for the first time. Chanu also had an impressive outing in Manchester in the 53 kg category. Sailaja Pujari (75 kg) and Pratima Kumari (53 kg) are the other Indians in the fray but it remains to be seen whether they can make much of an impact. (PTI)