L. Dhanush is one of the country’s best weightlifters in the youth men’s 49kg category. A few days ago, the 16-year-old won his second successive National youth gold medal here at the National Weightlifting Championships, creating a record in the clean and jerk (110Kg). He had won the youth bronze in the Asian junior & youth championships in Tashkent in July this year. He also holds the National youth record in snatch and clean and jerk.
Despite his stellar achievements, it’s a pity that there’s still no sponsor for Dhanush.
His father V. Loganathan, a carpenter who struggles to make ends meet, told Sportstar, “For every travel of Dhanush I book his tickets. I have taken an amount of Rs. 3 lakh from friends, family and well wishers for various expenses for Dhanush. I have a daughter who is doing well at the State-level in weightlifting. It is becoming very tough. I don’t know how to get sponsors.”
It’s not that Loganathan hasn’t tried. He had sent through post the achievements of his son to the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) recently, but the body hasn’t responded.
“Around two weeks back I had sent through speed post to SDAT listing the achievements of my son asking SDAT for help. But there hasn’t been any response.” Loganathan rued.
Loganathan had even asked an MLA of his locality (Thiruvallur) and Councillor to help sponsor his son, but nothing has come to fruition.
“They garlanded my son and said they will do something. But nothing has moved,” said the worried father.
It’s reliably learnt that though the Tamil Nadu State Weightlifting Association is recognised by the Indian Weightlifting Federation, it is not affiliated to either the Tamil Nadu Olympic Association or SDAT, hence the latter is not releasing funds.
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