CWG 2018 Live, Day 5: Pardeep Singh won silver medal in weightlifting. (Source: AP)
MORE THAN a decade ago, when Pardeep Singh started weightlifting at the Government Senior Secondary School, Samrai near his village, Jandiala Manjki in Jalandhar district, the then 13-year-old youngster lifted a weight of 27 kg in his first competition. On Monday, the 23-year-old weight-lifter won the silver medal in the men’s 105 kg weightlifting event with a total lift of 352 kg at the Commonwealth Games in Australia with a new national record of 200 kg in clean and jerk. Samoa’s Sanele Mao claimed the gold with a total lift of 360 kg while England’s Owen Boxall claimed the bronze medal with a total lift of 351 kg.
“I come from a farming family, which owns 22 acres in the village. I was never interested in farming but watched my uncle Kulwinder Singh, who is also a weight-lifter, train. Later at the village school, coach Harmesh Lal introduced me to weightlifting and I could only lift 27 kg in my first competition. We trained with only one set of weights in the village school and to make the new national record with a clean and jerk lift of 200 kg apart from winning the silver in Commonwealth Games is the best gift for my village,” Pardeep Singh told The Indian Express over the phone from Australia.
Kin of weightlifter Pardeep Singh at their village near Jalandhar. (Express photo)
Singh, who broke his own national record of 196 kg in clean and jerk, which he set in last year’s world championships in the US finishing 17th, first won a medal at national level when he won a bronze medal in Junior National Weightlifting Championships in Guwahati in 2013. The next year saw Singh breaking the junior national record in the 94 kg category the junior nationals, an year which also saw Singh’s father Amrik Singh passing away. Putting the loss behind, Singh won two successive gold medals in 94 kg category senior nationals in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Singh, who also trains under coach Lakhbir Lal and Jass Dhillon in Jalandhar apart from national coach Vijay Sharma, had qualified for the Commonwealth Games by winning the gold medal in last year’s Commonwealth & Oceania Youth Championships. “When he attended the school and first came to me, I was impressed with his motor ability and his speed. At that time, we had only one set of weights and 15-20 village boys would practice with us. Most of his cousins are into farming but he always talked about lifting weights. When his father died in 2014, he was also selected for the national camp and the family had to give the farming land on contract farming. Last year, when he got a job with the Indian Railways, it meant that he also had a regular income. We hope that his medal can bring attention of the Punjab sports department to provide more training facilities at the village school,” said coach Harmesh Lal.
At the village, the Singh family, including Pardeep’s mother 60-year-old Jaswinder Kaur and younger sister Sukhpreet Kaur, keenly followed Monday’s competition. “When Deepa bhai (Pardeep) won the gold medal last year in the Commonwealth Championships, he promised us that he would win a medal in the Commonwealth Games. After our father’s death, he has rarely come home due to his training and competitions. When he returns with the medal, it will also be an inspiration to the youngsters who work in the farms in the village,” said Sukhpreet Kaur.