The Hindu : Sport : Indians win eleven golds

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 01, 2005

Sport

Sport

Indians win eleven golds

A. Vinod

ALAPPUZHA: India, helped by the poor turnout in the lower weight categories, enjoyed a field day by winning 11 of the 15 golds that were up for grabs on the opening day of the 17th Asian powerlifting championship at the Raiban auditorium here on Saturday.

However, what made it a great day for the home contigent as well as the packed house was the class act by local lad, Midhun Joseph, who accounted for one of the three continental records that were established during the course of the hectic day. The 17-year-old was brilliant all the way in the squat competitions of the 52kg competitions for sub-juniors before he ended his show with a lift of 187.5kg, improving upon the existing record of 170kg (set by compatriot N. Vora Prasad in 2002) by a whopping 17.5kg.

That the first year B.Tech student of the Pulinkunnum Engineering College, near here, was focussed to leave his mark behind was evident right from the start as he commenced his show by equalling Vora Prasad's record in his first attempt itself. Midhun, son of Kerala's lone Arjuna award winner in powerlifting P.J.Joseph, then had a successful attempt of 180kg in his second effort before he rounded off his record-breaking spree with that great effort of 187.5kg.

Though, Midhun could only end up second to fellow Indian V. Malleswar Rao in the remaining two apparatuses — bench press and deadlift, he still was able to corner the gold in total ahead of his team-mate by a good five kg. Malleswar, who had a poor round in squat lifting only 160 kg, had a best of 95 kg in bench press and 200 kg in deadlift but could only total 455 kg as against Midhun's 460 kg. Midhun had returned with 90 kg in the bench press and 182.5 kg in the deadlift.

Other records

The day's other new records came in through Chinese Taipei's Lee Chia-Yu in the 44 kg competition for sub-junior girls. Despite there being none to push her in her section, wherein she was the lone competitor, the 18-year-old took the lack of competition in her stride as she finished with 148 kg through a fourth attempt in deadlift and obliterating in the process her predecessor Chen Yuan-Min's mark of 128 kg by a good 60 kg and the existing benchmark for total (also by Chen Yuan-Min) by an impressive margin of 42.5 kg. The earlier mark for total was just 275 kg set in 2002.

Besides Midhun, the other gold-medallists for India were P. Suresh (seniors), Satiram Singh (Masters 1), I. Sebastian (Masters 2), all in 52 kg, V. Lokananthan (seniors), R. Mohanakrishnan (Masters 1), Prunachandra Boika (Masters 2), D. Lodh Choudhary (Masters 3), all in 56kg, Pushpamma Joseph (seniors) and Santoshi Majhi (juniors) and Mandakini Mohanta (seniors) in the women's 44 and 48kg classes respectively.

In the meanwhile, the late arrival of some of the participating teams forced the cancellation of the junior and sub-junior competitions of the 52 kg and 56 kg classes, which was scheduled for Saturday morning.

The results: Men: 52kg: Seniors: 1. P. Suresh (Ind), (215 squat, 140 benchpress, 200 deadlift, 555 total); 2. Ibrahim (Irq), (150, 80, 180, 410). Sub-juniors: 1. Midhun Joseph (Ind), (187.5, New Asian Record, 90, 182.5, 460); 2. V. Malleswar Rao (Ind), (160, 95, 200, 455). Masters 1 (above 40 yrs): 1. Satiram Singh (Ind), (150, 70, 170, 390); 2. K.S. Wanjare (Ind), (140, 80, 150, 370). Masters 2 (above 50 yrs): 1. I. Sebastian (Ind), (175, 90, 200, 465); 2. P. Chatterjee (Ind), (150, 65, 170, 385). Masters 3 (above 60 yrs): 1. Pok Kim Won (Hong Kong), (115, 67.5, 132.5, 315); 2. P.M. Thomas (Ind), (107.5, 47.5, 140, 295).

56 kg: Seniors: 1. V. Loganathan (Ind), (230, 122.5, 252.5, 605); 2. Sergei Kozba (Kaz), (170, 120, 170, 460). Juniors: 1.Wu Chih Wen (C. Taipei), (165, 92.5, 170, 427.5); 2. Suhail Mahfoodh Ali (Oman), (140, 92.5, 180, 412.50). Masters 1: 1. R. Mohanakrishnan (Ind), (187.5, 82.5, 202.5, 472.5), 2. Satish Mptade (Ind), (167.5, 117.5, 185, 470). Masters 2: 1. Purnachandra Boika (Ind), (155, 65, 160, 380); 2. T.M. Waman (Ind), (140, 70, 150, 360). Masters 3: 1. D. Lodh Choudhary (Ind), (145, 67.5, 145, 357.5).

Women: 44 kg: Seniors: 1. Pushpamma Joseph (Ind), (122.5, 60, 127.5, 310). Juniors: 1. Santoshi Majhi (Ind), (125, 52.5, 142.5, 320). Sub-juniors: 1. Lee Chia-Yu (C. Taipei), (110, 60, 147.5 (148 in the fourth for a new Asian record), 317.5).

48 kg: Seniors: 1. Mandakini Mohanta (Ind), (132.5, 70, 160, 362.5); 2. Sudha Prabhu (Ind), (130, 75, 130, 335). Juniors: 1. Lin Yi Ting (C. Taipei), (130, 65, 125, 320); 2. N.B. Jyothi (Ind), (115, 57.5, 115, 287.5).

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport