The IWLF Youth, Junior & Senior National Weightlifting Championship 2021-2022 got underway today in Bhubaneswar. Participating at the Nationals are over 800 weightlifters from across 30 States. Indian Weightlifting Federation in association with the Odisha Weightlifting Association with support from the Sports and Youth Services Department, Government of Odisha, will conduct the event. The competition will be held in 10 different Weight Categories for Youth (Boys & Girls), Junior & Seniors (Men & Women).

The Championships was declared open by Sports Secretary, Vineel Krishna in the presence of President, Indian Weightlifting Federation, Sahadev Yadav, President, Paralympic Committee of India, Padmashree, Deepa Malik, Director General Sports, KIIT University, Gaganendu Dash, Secretary-General, Indian Weightlifting Federation, Ananda Gouda, President Odisha Weightlifting Association, Chittaranjan Swain and Secretary, Odisha Weightlifting Association, Narayan Sahu.

On behalf of the host state, Krishna felicitated all the esteemed dignitaries. He said, “We are very glad to be hosting this National Weightlifting Championship in Odisha, across categories. Weightlifting is a very important sport for India and has brought laurels for the country in the international arena. I commend IWLF for taking the sports to such great heights. Even for Odisha, weightlifting is amongst a priority sport and I hope in the coming years, the weightlifters from our state will bring laurels for the state and country. We have also invested in 89 indoor multipurpose halls across Odisha where Weightlifting will be promoted and along with our Weightlifting High-Performance Centre will collectively boost the weightlifting ecosystem in the state. We look forward to working with IWLF in not only hosting tournaments, but also setting up a National Centre of Excellence in Odisha.”

This competition is the qualifier for 5th edition of Khelo India Youth Games, 2022 which is scheduled to be held later this year.This will also be considered a Selection Trial for the IWF Youth and Junior World Championships both for eligible lifters. The event will go on till the 31st March’ 2022 and will witness some of the finest weightlifters across age and event categories.