State’s women athletes raise the bar at nat’l weightlifting contest

Kaju katli, gulab jamuns, golgappas, pizza. Akanksha Vyavhare's core is not merely making up for a lost Diwali. After having subsisted on boiled chicken, boiled eggs and fruits for two sweaty months, the petite 15-year-old weightlifter has returned home to Manmad with a round goldplated Indian license to eat round silver-coated Indian desserts.

- Sharmila.Ganesan timesgroup.com

Blocking out the pain in her injured left elbow, the softspoken teen protege of her moustachioed uncle and coach Praveen Vyavhare--lifted 60 kgs in 'Snatch', 70 kgs in 'Clean and jerk' and 139 kgs in all to create three national records in the under-40-kg weight category at the recent Khelo India Youth Junior Senior National Ranking Women's Weightlifting Tournament in Uttarakhand. "I also won the best lifter trophy," says the gold medallist who took a selfie with her hero, Mirabai Chanu, at the event.

Manmad's Akanksha-whose life's first barbell was a 5-kg PVC pipe--is among the many strong women from developing Maharashtra who updated their social media profiles soon after descending from the Modinagar podium between October 28 and November 2. Hailing from rustic pin codes where the sport continues to be mired by misconceptions, if not poverty and conservatism, the players returned to hometowns where their medals alter the weight of moth-eaten perceptions.