It’s Jeremy Lalrinnunga vs Achinta Sheuli for Olympics spot

New Delhi, August 24

Commonwealth Games gold medallist lifters Jeremy Lalrinnunga and Achinta Sheuli will vie for India’s lone 73kg category spot for the Paris Olympics as the former’s 67kg division doesn’t feature in the 2024 Games.

With the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) scrapping the 67kg class, Lalrinnunga will bulk up to compete in the 73kg class. He had won gold in the 67kg category at the CWG.

However, India already has a representation in the 73kg division. That would be Sheuli, who is the national record holder and reigning CWG champion in the division.

The two will now go head to head in a bid to seal qualification for the 2024 Olympics as only one lifter per country is allowed in a weight class.

“I will increase my weight to 73kg,” said Lalrinnunga, who is in the US for a three-and-a-half week strength and conditioning training camp in St Louis. “My natural weight is 65kg. So, going up will be difficult to increase my body weight,” he added.

This is not the first time Lalrinnunga will have to bulk up. The 19-year-old lifter had won the 2018 Youth Olympics gold medal in Buenos Aires in the 62kg category. He had then moved to the 67kg class to comply with the new Olympics weight categories IWF had introduced then.

Weighing in on the situation, head coach Vijay Sharma said the two lifters will motivate each other to do better. “It is good that Jeremy and Achinta will be in the same weight category. There should be healthy competition between lifters as otherwise they might take things easy,” Sharma said. “They both have to work really hard and improve to qualify.”