Olympic gold the holy grail for Nooh, Talib

Weightlifters won’t rest on newly captured laurels

KARACHI: After clinching a gold and a silver medal each at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships that wrapped up in Australia on Saturday, Gujranwala teenagers Nooh Dastagir Butt and Talha Talib have set their sights on capturing the coveted Olympic gold.

Pakistan, for the first time, managed to win more than one medal at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships, all thanks to the aforesaid duo.

They dominated their respective junior categories and were only a whisker away from winning the championship gold as well.

Per the 17-year-old Talib, he would have won the 62kg seniors event too had it not been for the exhaustion accumulated from his taxing travel to Gold Coast.

“It could have been an even greater event if I had won in overall category as well,” Talha told The Express Tribune. “My aim definitely was to win the seniors event, but the competition was tough and I felt a little stressed due to a lack of rest because of such a long flight to Gold Coast, but I’m not complaining as my failure only identified my weaknesses.”

Talha, whose undoubtedly precocious talent comes from his father — himself a weightlifter, feels the natural step up for him now is to target two of the biggest prizes in his sport.

“From the age of eight, I would go to the gym with my father in Gujranwala every day and one day I told myself: ‘this is something I should do professionally’, so this became my passion,” he recalled. “Now all I want to do is win the Commonwealth Games next year and also go to the Olympics.”

His teammate Nooh, meanwhile, didn’t just win twin medals in Gold Coast, he set the new juniors record at Commonwealth Championship by lifting a total of 389kg — an improvement on his own national record for +105kg.

And although he too came up short in the seniors, he says that experience has taught him valuable lessons.

“I’m more confident now,” said Nooh. “This event has been a good one, but I also realised that even though my clean and jerk technique is fine, I need to work harder on my snatch. I lost my seniors gold medal because of that one weakness. Nonetheless, I feel I do have the capability of going to the Olympics and winning the Commonwealth Games. It’s very uplifting.”