The Hindu : Indian women's good show

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 17, 2003

Sport

Sport - Weightlifting

Indian women's good show

New Delhi Sept. 16 Indian women lifters today returned home reaping a rich medal haul in the senior Asian weightlifting championship in China, where they finished second in the team championship.

The lifters bagged eight silver and four bronze medals at Qinhuangdao to emerge runner-up with 355 points behind China, which won the team championship with 532.

The five-member Indian women's team finished ahead of Asian giants Indonesia (286), North Korea (283) and South Korea (209), Indian Weightlifting Federation secretary Balbir Singh Bhatia, who accompanied the team on the tour, told pressmen here.

Nandini Devi came up with the most impressive performance for India as she claimed three silver in the 53kg category.

``Nandini performed really well to win three medals. This can help increase her world ranking to six or seven,'' Bhatia told pressmen.

Nandini lifted 87.5kg in snatch and 112.5kg in the clean and jerk style.

Pratima Kumari, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist bagged two silvers and a bronze medal, lifting a total of 220 kg in the 63 kg category.

She lifted 97.5kg and 122.5kg in snatch and clean and jerk styles respectively.

Another medallist in Commonwealth Games, Prasmita Mangaraj, settled for one silver in snatch and a bronze in clean and jerk. Her total came to 205kg (92.5kg+120kg).

Gita Rani, contesting in the 75+kg category, won three silvers with a total score of 220 (100kg+120kg).

However, Nansita Devi could not mark her presence in 69 kg category at the competition.

The weightlifting coach Jaspal Singh Sandhu was adjudged the best women's coach by the Asian Weightlifting Federation while Bulgaria's Stotechev, who is presently training Iran lifters, was given the best men's coach award in the competition, said Bhatia, who was also a part of the jury.

About the performance of the Indian men's team, the IWF secretary said ``the men's team was ``highly disappointing'' as most of them finished at fourth or fifth positions''.

PTI

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