Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 11 Jun: Ace lifter Sambo Lapung, who was excluded from the 2025 Commonwealth Championship trials, has now been selected to participate in the selection trials for the 2025 IWF Senior World Weightlifting Championships.
Besides Lapung, three other lifters from Arunachal Pradesh-Kojum Taba, Markio Tario and Balo Yalam have been selected for the world championship trials.
“The performance of 2025 IWF Senior World Weightlifting Championships-Forde-Norway will be considered for the qualification process for the 2026 Commonwealth Games,” according to Indian Weightlifting Federation.
Lapung’s selection for the World Weightlifting Championships trials has been made possible due to the prompt intervention of union minister Kiren Rijiju, Arunachal Olympic Association secretary-general Bamang Tago, said while appreciating the union minister’s timely intervention in the matter.
The lifter’s (Lapung) exclusion from the 2025 Commonwealth Championship trials had sparked widespread outrage over alleged regional bias by the IWF.
East Kameng Social Welfare and Cultural Organization had earlier submitted a representation to union minister Kiren Rijiju, describing Lapung’s exclusion from the Indian team for the Commonwealth Championship as a “serious lapse in fairness and transparency” by the IWF.
The AOA had also sought an official clarification regarding the lifter’s exclusion.
Lapung had won gold at the senior National Weightlifting Championships held in Chandigarh in 2022, Itanagar in 2023, and Himachal Pradesh in 2024.
Meanwhile, three other lifters from Arunachal Pradesh have been selected for the 2025 Commonwealth youth, junior and senior Weightlifting Championship, Ahmedabad. The lifters are Tara Pungni, Tinku Golom and Tayar Ronik.
However, Pungni Tara has been exempted from the selection trials to be held on 29 and 30 June at Patiala.
