India's women are our best World Weightlifting Championship hope: Interview with coach Vijay Sharma

Indian weightlifters Mirabai and Sanjita Chanu

It’s been a long time since Indian weightlifters attained a podium finish in the World Weightlifting Championships. As the 2015 World Weightlifting Championship kicks off in Houston, Texas, later this month, the Indian contingent is exuding guarded optimism. “Our weightlifters have really trained hard in the camp and we have reasons to be optimistic about our performance in the 2015 World Weightlifting Championship,” says Indian weightlifting coach Vijay Sharma, hours before leaving for the USA for the big-ticket event.

The Indian contingent is arriving ten days ahead of the Championship, which should stand them in good stead. “Arriving early will help our weightlifters to acclimatise to conditions in Houston. We will have ten days to prepare there, which will be good for our weightlifters,” Sharma says.

A former international weightlifter himself, Sharma has high hopes from the women’s 48 kg. “There is no doubt that women’s 48 kg is our best medal hope. Both Mirabai Chanu and Sanjita Chanu are doing well in the camp and with a little bit of luck they can make the country proud in Houston. It’s all about performing on the given day,” he said.

However, he is pragmatic enough to mention winning a medal in the men’s category will be a big challenge. “Satish Kumar is a great prospect for us in the men’s 77 kg category. He is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion and to be honest we will be happy he can improve on his total weight of Glasgow CWG. The competition in the men’s category is really tough and it takes a lot of doing to win a medal,” he points out.

The world weightlifting scene is dominated by countries like China, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Iran. What do these weightlifters have more than our lifters? “See, there is no shortage of talent in India – all these top nations are ahead of us in diet and science. If we can focus more on our diet and science and ensure our lifters find ways to get quick recovery, we will be on par with them,” Sharma explains.

Although the odds appear to be stacked against the Indians, but let’s hope our weightlifters dish out a solid performance.