Andhra Pradesh - Ongole   

`Power' doesn't always pay

Special Correspondent

Narayanamma displaying her medals

ONGOLE: A jubilant Talluri Narayanamma (23), who won the Asian power lifting championship in Taiwan on May 6, returned home on Saturday with her two gold and one silver medals.

She has now set her eyes on winning the International power lifting championship to be held at Paris this September. She is practising for five hours a day since she needs to lift at least 50 kg more to emerge as the world champ. Narayanamma also has to search for sponsors who will the fund her tour to Paris and back. She lifted 175 kg in squat, 67.5 kg in bench press and 17.5 kg in dead lift totalling 417.5 kg to emerge as the best lifter at the Asian Power-lifting championship held at Kaohsiung in Taiwan from May 1-6. As the world record today is 470 kg in power lifting, she has to increase her capacity by over 50 kg in all the three events put together to become world champion.

Daughter of Siddaiah, a driver in zilla parishad office here, Narayanamma took to power lifting after watched some sportspersons practise here. She won several medals including the second prize at the Asian power lifting championship held at Alleppey in Kerala in 2005 and fifth place in an international event held at Koscian in Poland in 2003.

Like many of her ilk, Narayanamma too is unhappy about the facilities extended for her sport in India in general and in the State in particular. She is practicing in a private gym run by Ch. Mallikarjua Rao, her coach.

There is no incentive either for the winners. While Karnataka provided a job in police department for Keerthi, who won the national championship, the Andhra Pradesh Government did not consider her for a job though she lifted Asian championship, she points out. She can concentrate more on the game if she has a job to sustain her family. She doesn't receive any allowance for diet. "I eat what the other members of my family eat," she said.

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`Power' doesn't always pay

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