The Khel Vikas Annual Inter Club Weightlifting Competition’14 has seen an enormous response with 65 athletes participating, who had come in from all the reputed weightlifting clubs of Berhampur, Odisha.
The Competition was organized by Pro Sport Development, in collaboration with social enterprise Gram Vikas, under the program “Khel Vikas” in the newly opened Centre of Excellence (COE) at Gram Vikas’ Mohuda campus on 24th of August. Khel Vikas’ Academy lifters wrote their names all over the competition by winning six of the available twelve medals, and additionally both Arun Santa and Tukuni Badamandi finished with heaviest lifts of the day in senior boys and girls category respectively.
The competition saw both boys and girls from Beer Hanuman Club, Berhampur Sports Hostel, Balunkeswar Club, Sankar Physical club and Khel Vikas academy competing in the U-17 age category as juniors and the remaining athletes in the seniors’ category on a day which was witnessed by Executive Director of Gram Vikas, Shri. Shubhasis Pattnaik along with Founder and Ex-Director of Gram Vikas Joe Madiath and Vice-President of Indian Weightlifting Federation Shri. Narayan Sahu.
The inauguration of the new Weightlifting centre was soon followed by the junior Girls event where all the podium places were taken by the young Khel Vikas academy lifters, Santi Lata Nayak (Gold), Jyoti Badamundi (Silver) and Kanchana Badamundi (Bronze). In the Junior Boys category, Srikanth Mallik and Bhakta Ram Dakti from Berhampur Sports Hostel claimed the gold and silver respectively leaving Jagadish Nayak from the Balunkeswar Club to settle for bronze.
The junior boys had seen the highest participation among all the categories for the day, with a total of 31 lifters.
Post lunch, it was time for the senior girls to drive hard and pull under with intent, which saw Tukuni Badamundi from Khel Vikas academy taking the gold. She scored 270.9 points by claiming over a forty point lead over Padmini Padhy of Beer Hanuman Club who finished with 223.9 points. Tukuni Badamundi had grabbed a special prize for doing the heaviest lift of the day by lifting 120 Kg (Snatch + Clean & Jerk). Another Khel Vikas academy lifter, Baidehi Majhi got her personal best (PB) in the snatch to take bronze.
Despite being last event of the day, senior boys were greeted with much unrivalled energy from the spectators which was evenly complemented by the lifters as some of them had got their Personal Bests.
Arun Santa from Khel Vikas academy lifted 215Kgs (Snatch + Clean & Jerk) winning both gold and the special prize for the heaviest lift of the day in boys category. While Mihirkant Sethi from Beer Hanuman Club and Sushant Kumar Hembram from Berhampur Sports Hostel clinched silver and bronze medals respectively.