Most of the top weightlifters have chosen to give the National (junior, youth & senior) championships to be held at Ponjesly Engineering College in Nagercoil from December 29 to January 7 a skip to prepare for three bigger events scheduled next year.
With the World championships getting over just a fortnight back in Bogota, Colombia and three events - the Asian junior & youth championships, the Commonwealth (youth, junior & senior) championships and the Commonwealth u-23 championships - all scheduled in New Delhi in July-August next year, the Nationals will miss some of the stars including 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games medallists Achinta Sheuli, Sanket Sagar and Jeremy Lalrinnuga.
Though Olympic & World championship medallist Mirabai Chanu is not taking part in the Nationals, she is expected to watch the proceedings for a day or two.
However, 2022 CWG medallists Harjinder Kaur, S. Bindyarani Devi and Lovepreet Singh have confirmed their participation.
“This is the second time Nagercoil is hosting the Nationals--the last time being in 2016. We were alloted the Nationals in February 2020 but due to COVID-19 we were not able to do it. It’s is a huge challenge to host a big event with around 1200 athletes, but we are ready,” S. Shanmugavel, Secretary of Tamil Nadu State Weightlifiting Association told Sportstar on Wednesday.
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