Kathmandu, July 29:

Rakesh Ranjit and Jhanta Kumari Katuwal are undergoing intense training for the upcoming World Weightlifting Championship to be held in Thailand next month.

The Nepal Police lifters, who are undergoing two-and-half-hour training daily, were selected as per their performance during the National Weightlifting Championship organised by Nepal Weightlifting Association from June 22-24 in Kathmandu.

Both Katuwal (58kg) and Ranjit (62kg) were named the best lifters in the championships. Katuwal, who holds six the national records in her weight category, was also declared the strongest woman of the year. Katuwal won the 58-kg section gold medal breaking her own previous six national records. This is for the first time any Nepali woman weightlifter is going to participate in the international championship. Jhanta has been the dominant force in national championship for long with three gold medals in the only three national championships held so far. Ranjit clinched the gold medal in the 62-kg weight category in the national championship and has brought home bronze medals from the seventh SAF Games in Madras and Eighth SAF in Kathmandu. He also took part in the ninth SAF (Islamabad), 10th SAG (Colombo) and 13th and 14th Asian Games.

The three coaches — Partha Sarathi Sen Gupta, Jaganath Pradhan and Sunil Joshi— are preparing the lifters for the world championship in Thailand, where top lifters across the world will be striving to win the championship — a gateway to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.