At 40, life began for powerlifter Sapna

Ranjit Thakur

Jammu, January 1

Life started at 40 for this 43-year-old mother of two grown-up children of Jammu, surprising everyone by winning four medals at the Asian Classic Powerlifting Championship held recently at Kazakhastan.

Sapna Jain has always maintained an active lifestyle, but she started training at the gym and introduced herself to weight training three years ago.

She won gold, silver and two bronze medals in the 47-kg masters’ category in the Asian Classic Powerlifting Championship held at Kazakhstan. She lifted a total of 237.5 kg weight in her category. Her last total was 220kgs. She lifted 75-kg squat, 47.5 kg bench and 115 kg in dead lift. Sapna said, “Whatever I have achieved is because of my husband. He has been my constant source of motivation and support, my children and father in-law too were pillars of strength.”

After graduating from Delhi, Sapna Jain married business man Pankaj Jain of Jammu and started power lifting after 23 years of her marriage. The three-time national gold medallist, Sapna, has been trained by ace coach and physique trainer Rahul Dev Manhas in Jammu.

“I learnt a lot from him, he saw my passion, potential and guided me to challenge myself and corrected my technique. I started going to the gym in 2016 and went for my first national in 2017 held at Jammu, second in Jamshedpur and third at Idduki, Kerala, in 2019.” She said.

“Though I suffered from various health problems like disc problem, cervical, sciatic nerves etc, but when I decided to go for powerlifting, all my ailments began to disappear. I continued with powerlifting and became passionate about it,” she said.

Being a housewife and tending to two children and other household chores, I maintain a balance with all, which keeps my family happy. This inspires me further to take up more challenges,” said Sapna adding that she is eyeing more international events and wants to bring Jammu on the world map.