Nooh breaks national record

Lifts a total of 395kg in 105kg event

KARACHI: Nooh Dastgir Butt shattered all the records at the National Junior Weightlifting Championship's 105kg event, boosting hopes of medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Game.

Nooh, who also won gold at the Youth Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship, made no mistakes as he became the most successful Pakistani athlete in the sport.

Farham Amjad and Yousuf Rafique also made new records in the 77kg and 56 kg events respectively.

According to Pakistan Weightlifting Federation (PWF) coach Rashed Malik, the national youth championship was of great significance since it practically serves as trials for next year's Commonwealth Games, where at least four athletes including Nooh, Youth Commonwealth Championship silver-medallist Talha Talib, Usman Rathod and Abu Sufyan are expected to challenge for honours.

Nooh lifted 395kg in total —170kg in snatch and 225kg in clean and jerk — making it the most improved performance by any weightlifter over the period of two months.

"Our goal is to win medals at the Commonwealth Games and we have at least four athletes who will be on the podium," Malik told The Express Tribune. "We will be sending seven weightlifters to Gold Coast in April, and of these we are expecting good results from at least four."

Regarding Nooh, he added: "We've never seen any athlete improve his weightlifting so fast. In September, he was lifting 167kg in snatch and 222kg in clean and jerk and now he has created national records — that is a big improvement. It isn't as easy as it sounds but he did it."

Malik further said that the PWF wants to give maximum exposure to its athletes so that they secure direct qualification 2020 Olympics instead of relying on continental quotas.

Another aspect Malik wants to keep a strict eye on is the diet and supplements of weightlifters due to the abundance of doping scandals in recent times.

"Doping scandals are very common, especially in strength sports, so we have to be very careful," he said. "We need to make sure our athletes are taking a natural diet."