Young, strong parade power

NEW DELHI: Her cherubic face may deceive everybody. But a shake hand with Rekha Acharya is sufficient to gauge the power she has in her hands, which lifted a total of 290.5 kg in the 3rd world sub-junior power lifting championship here at the Shah auditorium on Friday. Acharya, one of the 29 women participants in the meet, earned a bronze in the 52kg category.
Indian girls finished runners-up with 52 points, behind Russia who amassed 72 points.Japan were third with 32.
A total of 125 are in fray for honours from 11 countries including the powerful Russians and the Kazakhs. The contest is for the age group of 14-18, unlike in most other sport where the sub-junior category is for those below 15.
The sport has a sizable number of followers in the country. ‘‘Our sport is not an Olympic event. But it’s still popular as the beautiful physique it can generate attracts youngsters,’’ says Bhupinder Dhawan, Dronacharya awardee and one of the organisers.
The event has medals on offer for squat, benchpress, deadlift and total categories and some top finishers, like Konstantin of Russia who grabbed three golds for his world record-breaking effort in the men’s 52kg, are multiple winners.