Weightlifting: More medals expected from trio

PWF confident Butt, Talib and Amjad will deliver

KARACHI: Fresh from bagging medals at the recent Commonwealth Championship in Malaysia, Pakistan’s weightlifting trio of Nooh Dastgir Butt, Talha Talib and Farhan Amjad will be hoping to do more of the same at the Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships, which commences in Tokyo today.

All three athletes have been working hard since returning on October 31 from Malaysia, where Talib won the gold medal in the 62kg event, Nooh claimed two silver medals in +105kg category, while debutant Amjad grabbed a bronze in the 77kg competition.

But they will have to up their game even more in Tokyo where they will be up against athletes from 18 countries, including Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, China, Turkmenistan, Thailand, Mongolia and India.

“We are hoping to add to our growing collection as all three of our weightlifters are well-prepared,” the Pakistan Weightlifting Federation (PWF) vice-president Rashed Malik told The Express Tribune. “We only had a week to prepare after the Commonwealth Championships so the aim was to tweak their techniques and rectify the little weaknesses that we found. They are good to go now.”

According to Malik, the 19-year-old Nooh will need to lift 215kg in clean and jerk and 163kg in snatch in order to win top gongs, while the expectation from Talib will remain the same, which is to lift 117kg in snatch.

The two remain Pakistan’s top hopes, but Malik also tipped Amjad to surprise everyone with his fighting spirit.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2016.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.