Lalitpur, November 6

Nepali lifters Prakash KC and Kamala Shrestha are on Monday leaving for Japan to take part in the 18th Asian Youth, 23rd Asian Junior Women’s and 30th Asian Junior Men’s Weightlifting Championships slated for November 8-16 at Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.

KC will compete in the 62kg weight category in youth and junior sections on November 11, while Shrestha will participate in the junior women’s 58kg category the next day. Coach Sunil Lal Joshi and team manager Sanjay Maharjan will accompany the players to Japan.

KC, whose personal best is 93kg in snatch and 120kg in clean and jerk, said his target would be to better his personal record. “My aim is to improve personal mark and I think my participation in the IWF Youth World Championships will be helpful for the competition,” said KC.

Similarly, Shrestha, whose personal best is 58kg in snatch and 73kg in clean and jerk, wanted to set the new national record. Shrestha’s last outing was the 12th SA Games held in India in February.

Coach Joshi said the players would be looking to set new national records in Japan. “Our main target is to break the national records apart from putting up the best performance and try not to finish at the bottom,” said the Olympian. Joshi added that Nepali lifters have not been provided with the required facilities as per the nature of the game. “The players are on normal diet and other requirements are also not met to create favourable environment for the game,” he added.

Nepal Weightlifting Association President Ratan Kumar Tandon and General Secretary Parth Sarathi Sen Gupt among others bade farewell to the team at the International Sports Complex. NWA President Tandon, General Secretary Gupt and Joint Secretary of Youth and Sports Ministry Choodamani Paudel are also travelling to Japan to take part in the Asian Weightlifting Federation’s Congress and executive board meeting slated for November 9. The congress is expected to decide the venue of the Asian Youth, Junior and Senior Weightlifting Championship to be held in July next year. According to Gupt, NWA is bidding to host the championship in Nepal. Nepal failed to organised the Asian Weightlifting Championship last year in August because of the devastating earthquake.