Moments before his 73kg final began here on Sunday evening, Achinta Sheuli had a quick chat with elder brother, Alok. Sheuli, 20, swears by India’s national coach Vijay Sharma’s instructions, but also can’t do without his brother’s little inputs.
India's Achinta Sheuli in action during the men's 73kg weightlifting category match of the Commonwealth Games 2022 (CWG), in Birmingham. (PTI)
After all, Alok stepping aside from the sport opened the pathway for Sheuli to become a top-class weightlifter. Make that Commonwealth Games champion weightlifter.
“He told me to nail all the six lifts. I dropped one, so I’m a little sad,” Sheuli said after sealing India's third gold from the lifting arena at the Games.
That one failed lift of 170kg in the second clean and jerk attempt was followed by a successful one to cap a CWG record total of 313kg. The snatch Games record of 143kg was also Sheuli’s on a night his fellow Birmingham CWG weightlifting gold medallists Mirabai Chanu and Jeremy Lalrinnunga turned spectator-coach and spectator-cheerleader respectively for him.
Almost a decade ago in Deulpur, around an hour’s drive from Kolkata, it was his brother who had turned the guiding force behind Sheuli’s big weightlifting push.
Alok Sheuli was a budding weightlifter at the death in 2013 of their father, who rode a cycle-rickshaw to make ends meet for the family of four. It complicated the family's financial situation. Without a breadwinner, he decided to leave the sport and take up a job that involved handmade embroidery work. He ensured his younger brother kept at it in weightlifting, drilling into his mind that “game se bhi career ban sakta hai (you can earn by playing sports too)”.
Not that the younger brother had to worry only about that. He also took up the embroidery work, joining his brother to contribute money for home. Barely in his early teens, Sheuli would wake up at 6.30am, work till 9am, train for an hour from 9.30am and then head to school, after which training would resume and go on till 8pm.
“Our mother used to work, but the money coming in was not enough. That’s why my brother quit weightlifting to support the family by helping my mother,” Sheuli said. “Despite the three of us working, it felt like the money coming in was still not enough.”
In 2015 after winning a bronze in the nationals, Sheuli was called up for the camp. The results didn’t take long to show. He won silver at the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Championships (in 56kg) and at the Asian Youth Championships (69kg) three years later. In 2019, the national champion in 73kg won the senior Commonwealth Championships by lifting 305kg.
There was a steady flow to the progress. A national record-bettering 313kg for silver at the Junior World Championships in May last year was followed by gold at the Commonwealth Championships in December totalling 316kg.
“When I first came to the camp, it was at the youth level. It was never my dream to compete or win a medal at the Commonwealth Games. I just wanted to represent India at the international level and be a better lifter,” Sheuli said. “My dream was to win a medal at the junior level. I won a medal at the junior level, then at the senior level. Then I was called for the senior camp. There when my performance improved every day, I started thinking maybe I can win a medal internationally.”
Jeremy, the 'perfect dost'
The 2022 CWG gold is a nice and early addition to that international medal list. He has for company Chanu and Lalrinnunga; both were watching and encouraging Sheuli from the spectators’ seating at the NEC Hall 1.
Chanu stood by the railing for his clean and jerk attempts, the instructions coming loud and clear. “Zor se kheecho (pull it hard),” she yelled as he prepared for his second lift of 170kg. “Easy, easy, easy,” Chanu yelled as he completed the clean routine. “Strong push, strong push,” she yelled as Sheuli gathered himself for the clean and jerk try.
Sheuli couldn’t pull it off, but as soon as he did in the third attempt, Lalrinnunga erupted in celebrations.
“Didi (Chanu) aur Jeremy ka awaaz sunayi diya tha (I could hear their voices),” Sheuli said.
Having won gold in the 67kg (the weight class is not there in the 2024 Olympics) hours earlier, Lalrinnunga had said he would move up to 73kg for Paris. Sheuli said he would also keep the same weight class, but had no doubt he will “need to fight harder in this category” going ahead.
Whatever the changes in weight class, the two young stars of Indian weightlifting will remain, as Sheuli put it, “ekdum perfect dost” (perfect friends).
“I share everything with him, including about my family and stuff, and he also tells me everything. We can ask each other for any kind of help,” he said.
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