North East News Agency

No wonder that she has done it again. She is continuing doing it  year after year. She has won unbelievable 67 international medals in her career. From world championships to the Commonwealth Games, thereˇ¦s at least one medal from each event in her cabinet. Thus the news that she has won another Gold medal at the 18th Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in Australia didnˇ¦t come as a surprise.

There cannot be praise or compliments enough to describe the efforts of Kunjarani Devi. She continues to thrill, continues to deliver and continues to prove her detractors wrong. At an age, when even many iron women would look beyond playing international sports, leave aside the physically and mentally challenging game of weight lifting, Kunjarani continues to raise the bar. Challenges eggs her on, pride for the State and Country is her moving force. She has become to weightlifting what perhaps Martina Navratilova is to tennis.

What is surprising that even after winning so many medals and making the country proud, Kunjarani Devi, the champion weightlifter from Manipur, is still to be awarded Padma Sree., while others with very limited success in the international arena have been rewarded by the government. For example, just after one good season in the international Tennis circuit, Sania Mirza has got Padma Sree. But Kunjarani is yet to figure in the list.

The 38-year-old bespectacled Indian lifter often referred as the grand old lady of Indian weightlifting, fetched India the first gold of the 18th Commonwealth Games by winning the womenˇ¦s 48 kg weight category with a new clean-and-jerk record.

Winning a Commonwealth Gold is nothing new for Kunjarani. She had won three Golds in this category in the last edition of the event in Manchester. But this time with only one Gold was up for grabs, the fight was tough. But, as usual the veteran lifter did not disappoint.

Kunjarani had a tense beginning in snatch. She failed to lift 70kg in her first attempt when the weight slipped off her hands. She, however, was soon in her elements, lifting the weight in her next attempt and went on to improve it, lifting 74 kg in her third attempt. There was no problem in clean-and-jerk as well as she lifted 88kg, increased it to 91 and then rewrote her own previous record of 92 kg   by successfully lifting a weight of 94 kg that took her aggregate to 166 and fetched Indias first gold in the Games.

Kunjarani lived up to the expectations as she was the top seed and far ahead of others in the field. She did India proud all right. Kunjarani led the Indian charge in weightlifting that won the country the maximum number of medals in Manchester Commonwealth Games with as many as 13 gold, nine silver and nine bronze medals. She will be quite a role model to all the girls who want to take up weightlifting as a sport. The victory will lay the foundation for many budding athletes. Though the Manipuri lifter was placed seventh in Centennial World Championship in Doha, she showed her capability to rise to the occasion and lead by example. Her lift in Doha saw her recent best lift of (78-100) 178 kgs.

Despite winning bagful of medals, still nurtures the unfulfilled dream of winning an Olympic medal. Olympic gold sure seems to be on the way given her current form.

|  Headlines  |  Editorial   | Coverstory  |
|  Travel Column   |   News Briefs  |
| OT Main Page | Nena  Home Page  |