'Kunjarani's best is not good enough for medal'

Onkar Singh in Delhi

Balbir Singh Bhatia, the government nominee on the ad-hoc selection committee of the Weightlifting Federation of India, was at pains to explain why the much decorated Kunjarani Devi has been left out of the Indian weightlifting squad for the coming Olympic Games.

The Weightlifting Federation of India on Monday announced a two-member women's team of Asian champion Karnam Malleshwari and Sanamacha Chanu, another promising weightlifter, to represent India at Sydney.

T Muthu (56 kg) got the lone berth in the men's section after Dalbir Singh (105 plus) suffered a shoulder injury in training.

"We wanted to send all the three women weightlifters, but, unfortunately, the international body has strict guidelines. Given the choice of opting for the two best in the country, we had no choice but to drop Kunjarani Devi from the Indian women's weightlifting squad," said Bhatia, as he sat along with two other selectors, R R Singh and Gopal Kalra, at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium on Tuesday.

According to Bhatia, the decision was very difficult. He said all the ten selectors debated for over four hours before giving their verdict in favour of Chanu.

"Sanamacha is not an inexperienced lifter. She has performed creditably in international championships and has three gold medals to her name. She is a budding lifter and needs to be encouraged," Bhatia said.

He claimed that Kunjarani's best is not good enough for her to stay in the race for a medal. "Her best effort in her category would not have gone beyond 185.5 kgs. Besides, she is overweight. If she sheds three kilograms she will feel weak and not be able to give a good performance," Bhatia maintained.

"On the other hand," Bhatia said, as he kept looking into his brief case for documents that he was unable to fish out to support his arguments, "both Malleshwari and Sanamacha are good enough to win a medal each in their own categories. Malleshwari can lift upto 240 kgs. This performance, according to international standards, is not only competitive but also a reasonable performance to win a medal.

"The other girl is capable of lifting upto 202.5 kgs and that should get her a silver medal. I wish and pray to God that they do a little bit more and they will be able to bag the gold medals."

Asked if coach Pal Singh Sandhu is upset with the selection committee's decision, Bhatia replied in the negative, saying the coach was party to the decision.

He denied that a particular lifter had been favoured. "No partiality has been shown to any of the women lifters selected to represent the country in the forthcoming Olympic Games in Sydney later next month," he said.

Kujarani Devi was not available for comment as she was still in Patiala training with the other two girls.