National Games - Chandigarh open its medal count via Sirsa’s Rori village - Courtesy weightlifter Veerjeet Kaur

 

Till 2017, before shifting her base from village Rori in Haryana’s Sirsa district to Post Graduate Government College-42 in Chandigarh, for academics, Veerjeet Kaur didn’t try her hand in any sport. Her exposure to the sporting world was only restricted to walk and running for fitness. 

Cut short to 2022. Veerjeet is one of the country's top weightlifters in her weight category (55kg), holds a junior national record and latest to her credit is the silver medal in the National Games in Gujarat. 

“When I took admission in Chandigarh, I didn't have any idea about weightlifting. It was only on the instance of our sports teacher Ram Niwas Yadav sir I tried a hand in weightlifting and the rest as they say is history,” recalled Veerjeet, who lifted 181kg (81kg snatch, 100 kg clean & jerk) to win silver on Friday.

“As we didn't have a weightlifting set in our college, so, Yadav sir introduced me to the sport through a 15kg barbell road. I trained with it for around two months. After that sir got me enrolled in the Chandigarh Sports Department’s weightlifting centre in Sector 42.”

In the very first year of joining the sport, she made a podium finish in the junior nationals held in Nagpur and next year she created a junior national record.

“I had some issues with the weightlifting coach in Chandigarh and moreover continuing training there with a rented accommodation and maintaining the lifter’s diet was costing me too much. So, earlier this year, I decided to move back to my village and train,” added Veerjeet, who also won silver in the Senior National Championship held in March. “I was hoping for gold in the National Games, but somehow I lost it by just a kg. As I didn’t have a coach here, I requested Punjab's coach Sarbjeet Singh Kanda to help me out during the warm-up. I am really thankful to him for his gesture.”

“My next target is to get a place in the Indian squad for the 2023 Asian Games.”