Lifters hope to open India’s medal account

There will medals on offer in swimming as well on Day One,but for the hosts it’s weightlifting that can set the tone. “For me the countdown has already begun. The medal in my category will be decided on the first day itself. It brings extra pressure as the whole country’s eyes are fixed on you. But I am ready to give my best,” say Dey,21,who won a gold medal at the junior Commonwealth Championships in Malaysia last year.

The youngster is one of the promising lifters in the country and the first one to make the Army Sports Institute (ASI) under the Mission Olympics scheme in 2004 when he was just 14. With a number of national and international medals,Dey,whose idolises Turkish ‘Pocket Dynamo’ Halil Mutlu,is being groomed as a potential medalist for the London and Rio Olympics.

“He won a bronze medal at the junior World Championships last year — the first Indian weightlifter to have won a medal at that stage. And his best is yet to come. He is a sure shot medal prospect at the Commonwealth Games,but is one who can even land us an Olympic medal a few years down the line,” says Capt Srinivasa Rao,manager of the men’s weightlifting team at the Games.

One of the competitors at the Games says that he is wary of Malaysian Amirul Hamizan Ibrahim,currently ranked No.1 amongst the Commonwealth nations. But an equally big threat also comes from closer home ¿ in fact from the adjacent room at the Army Sports Institute hostel.

Valluri Srinivasa Rao has been one of the country’s prominent lifters in the 56kg category. He established his international credentials last year in Malaysia by winning the senior Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships.

“I am looking forward to repeating that performance here,” says the 26-year-old from Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh. “Sukhen and I have very healthy rivalry. He is a great friend and very good practice partner. We egg each other on to lift more weight during practice at ASI. During competition,we try to outdo each other. If he lifts ‘x’ kg,I’ll try to lift ‘x+1’. And vice versa,” he says.

Besides Dey and Rao,the Army can boast of two more lifters in the Games squad,thus forming one half of the eight-strong men’s team. In the 85kg category,Chandrakant Mali is the reining national champion and the No.1 ranked lifter in the Commonwealth.

But their best bet,and that of India too,happens to be K Ravi Kumar,who is world No.3 in the 69kg category. “If not for the Commonwealth Games,he would participated at the just concluded World Championships in Turkey. He would have surely bagged a medal there,but we are preserving him for this. When he walks out to compete on October 6,he’ll be a firm favourite to top the podium,” says Capt Rao.