Good Sports: YOUTHS PROVIDE HOPE FOR OLYMPICS
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently met and congratulated India’s medal winners from the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Argentina. Modi urged them to remain focused and work hard to achieve their goal of reaching the podium at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
India won 13 medals (three gold, nine silver, one bronze) at the YOG, more than at the two previous Youth Olympics combined. Weightlifter Jeremy Lalrinnunga, 15, became the first Indian to win gold at the Youth Olympics, and was soon joined by shooters Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary, both 16.
Winning medals in the junior ranks is no guarantee of success as a senior athlete, where competition is fiercer. Weightlifter Venkat Rahul Ragala knows what it takes, having won a silver medal at the 2014 Youth Olympics and following it up, four years later, with a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
“Experience at junior level helps, but you need to be more calm,” he told Times of India. “Meditation helps; you need to train more. In weightlifting, you have to increase your weight in senior category.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? Please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]
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