[ M Doley ]
ITANAGAR, 7 Oct: The sports managers and athletes of the state have expressed strong resentment over the state government’s apathetic attitude with regard to providing financial support for procuring nutritional supplements for the sportspersons, particularly the weightlifters.
They said that, without the government providing necessary support to the athletes, winning medals at the Olympics would remain a distant dream.
“To be successful in sports, the athletes of the state need to go through many struggles,” star lifter Sambo Lapung said, shortly after winning a gold medal in the ongoing National Games in Gujarat.
The ace lifter from the state lifted an overall 346 kgs and set a new national record in clean & jerk by lifting 198 kgs.
But his success didn’t happen overnight. He struggled for years before achieving this rare feat.
A havildar in the Indian Army, Lapung said that he is in the Indian Army only to support himself financially, so that he can continue weightlifting.
The lifter fills his nutritional requirements with the help of bank loans. “There are loans to the tune of Rs 15 lakhs since last four years, and the bank deducts Rs 30,000 every month from my limited income,” he said.
Lapung said that the diet that a weightlifter needs to follow is costly, adding that the locally available cheap nutritional supplements cannot be consumed as there is every possibility of testing positive in the dope test if such supplements are consumed.
“We need to buy nutritional products from foreign countries at a very high cost,” he said.
He went on to say: “We need to start loading nutrients at least three to four months ahead of a competition. If the nutrition the body needs is not maintained, it will lead to serious injury.”
The 27-year-old lifter said that he has not received any financial support from the government, despite requests.
“I appealed to the government three times last year, seeking financial support, but to no avail,” the ace lifter rued.
He said that the files never reach the competent authority and are lost somewhere in the state secretariat for reasons unknown.
Lapung said that winning an Olympic medal or two would continue to elude the sportspersons of the state, unless the government provides necessary support to them.
Arunachal’s weightlifting coach for the National Games, Yukar Sibi, said that the amount of protein needed to recover from a weightlifting session is around 2 grams per kilogramme of bodyweight per day.
“The youths of the state are fit from all sides, including genetically and anatomically, particularly for weightlifting, and, if the government provides necessary support, the state can produce hundreds of weightlifters of Lapung’s calibre,” he said.
The weightlifters of the state have so far won two medals (both gold) in national games, and at least 30 medals in Khelo India events, besides 50 medals in national championships and three in various international events under Sibi’s coaching.
