From cutting chaff on the fields to lifting barbell to win CWG bronze: Weightlifter Harjinder’s journey

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The energy Harjinder Kaur confirmed in the tug-of-war opened doorways for her to develop into a weightlifter. Her robust arms, she says, had been developed by cutting fodder. It was onerous labour on what is named the toka, a chaff cutting machine which requires the operator to flip an enormous wheel with blades.

The 25-year-old weightlifter, a bronze medal winner in the 71 kg at the Commonwealth Games, is now reaping the rewards of the onerous work she put in over the years, on the discipline and whereas lifting weights on a barbell. Kaur lifted a complete of 212 kg to end behind England’s Sarah Davies and Canadian Alexis Ashworth in a excessive drama occasion and claimed the bronze medal.

Her household lived in a one-room home, they owned six buffaloes and work on contracted farmland. But life was onerous in Mehas village close to Nabha, she says. Kabaddi, a preferred sport in the hinterlands of Punjab was her past love. Sport, kabaddi first, then tug of conflict and later weightlifting, helped her uplift her household.

“My father would give me Rs 350 for the return fare from Nabha to the faculty hostel in Sri Anandpur Sahib and one other Rs 350 as pocket money. I felt ashamed to ask for extra money,” Harjinder stated earlier than her competitors at the CWG. “If I win a medal, I might say that the fodder I minimize on a toka helped me construct robust arms and it helped me after I took up weightlifting,” Harjinder added.

She is the youngest little one of Sahib Singh and Kuldeep Kaur. The teenager would play kabaddi at the Government Girls School at Nabha. She would cycle 5 kilometres to get there. When she joined faculty, in Anandpur Sahib, coach Surinder Singh made her play for the faculty Kabaddi group. An 12 months later, Kaur joined the sports activities wing at Punjabi University, Patiala the place coach Paramjeet Sharma noticed her expertise.

Her robust arms, the coach felt, would assist her stroll into tug of conflict groups. The 1990 Commonwealth Games champion (69kg) in weight lifting had already deliberate her profession path. The tug of conflict was solely the first step.

“I used to be stunned at how a lot energy she had as a youngster once we put her into the tug of conflict groups. She undertook some nationwide excursions. It took a while to persuade her to shift to weightlifting. There had been occasions when she would return to her village and didn’t present an excessive amount of of curiosity in weightlifting. But she would at all times return. Today I can say it was the proper choice to make her a weightlifter,” Sharma, 65, stated.

“Sometimes Harjinder received carried away due to her personal energy. In weightlifting, energy without method is disastrous. She wanted a mentor and information,” he added.

“As she had an excellent physique, we didn’t have to fear about her energy. But generally she would go all out in a single raise. I had to make her perceive that it doesn’t work that approach. I needed her to preserve good stamina. So she started with running earlier than I labored on issues like cut up snatch, pull and jerk and wrist place.,” Sharma stated.

Her father and elder brother Pritpal Singh had been her fixed assist. They would take loans from relations and mates. The largest quantity borrowed was Rs 50,000 from the village financial institution to assist Kaur. Soon Harjinder together with elder brother Pritpal Singh was serving to repay a part of the mortgage. In 2017, she turned the state weightlifting champion and started profitable money prizes. By this time brother Pritpal Singh was appointed as a clerk on probation foundation. His wage of Rs 10,000 helped ease the monetary pressure.

She went from energy to energy.

All India Inter University champion, silver at the Senior Nationals, silver in the Khelo India Inter University video games had been a few of her early podium locations.
When a lockdown was imposed due to Covid, Harjinder and different trainees shifted to coach Sharma’s residence. “I didn’t have my very own barbell set. So I had to take a barbell set from the college with an endeavor and shifted to sir’s residence,” Harjinder says. The coach’s mom, in her 90s, was in danger. So the trainees didn’t step out as a result of they didn’t need to get contaminated and produce the virus residence.

“It helped that they skilled in a bunch. It was mild coaching nevertheless it helped maintain them in share,” coach Sharma added.

Earlier this 12 months, she received the gold in 71 kg class in Senior Nationals in Orissa with a complete raise of 208kg (92kg in snatch and 116 in clear and jerk). Soon she was included in the nationwide camp. “Coming to the camp made me not fear about issues like physio or dietary supplements or teaching. To see Mirabai (Chanu) didi and later take a selfie along with her stays my particular second. Hopefully I can take a selfie with Mirabai didi after profitable the CWG medal,” Harjinder stated.


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