Young weightlifters from Vellore district have won laurels at national-level weightlifting championships.
They have brought home eight gold medals, three silver medals and two bronze medals from two championships held at Warangal in Telangana and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.
Two girls and two boys took part in the national-level weightlifting championship held among schools at Warangal in Telangana from October 3 to 7. It was organised by the School Games Federation of India, according to L. Vinayagamoorthy, weightlifting coach.
Among them, S. Lokchand bagged the gold medal in the 85 kilo category, while R. Jaykaran won the bronze in the 56 kilo category. He said that Lokchand had won the silver medal in the championship last year.
At the National Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championship organised by the Weightlifting Federation at Vijayawada from October 2 to 5, eight girls and six boys from Vellore district participated. Of them, seven weightlifters – S. Ramu (62 kg category), R. Ganesh (105 kg), D. Poonkodi (44 kg), N. Karthika (53 kg), Kavitha (58 kg), L. Reshma (63 kg) and S. Savitha (69 kg) – won gold medals.
Three weightlifters – V. Arulpandian (77 kg), N. Amir Hussain (69 kg) and J. Yogesh (59 kg) – bagged silver medals, while Priyadharshini won the bronze medal in the 69 kg category. N. Karthika was also declared the best weightlifter.
The players were undergoing training at the State government’s special development centre for weightlifting in Vellore.
Collector S.A. Raman congratulated the winners on Thursday. Among others, S. Ramesh, district sports and youth welfare officer, Vellore and R. Kavitha, weightlifting coach were present, a press release said.
