Barath Palanisamy
India is a country that celebrates only cricket and performs only in cricketing arena were the opinions that revolved around for decades. It is being disproved these days. The country is finding its own talents from the nook and corner. The recent Asian Athletics Championship – 2017 is a fine example. 41 countries participated in the event and India topped the list with 29 medals. It is just the beginning of good sporting era in the country, claimed the experts.
One such young lad with dreams to represent his nation in the international arena is Barath Palanisamy, a literature student from Kongunadu Arts and Science College who is selected for the Commonwealth Power lifting Championships 2017 that is to be held in Potchefstroom, South Africa from September 10th to 17th, 2017.
“I’m indebted to my parents for having so much faith & the love they showered me all these years is incomparable. My college and my trainers are the backbone for the success thus far I had and I owe to them deeply”, said the young champ Barath.
“It all started when I completed my board exams. Like every youngster I too wanted to join gym”, said Barath.
“I was so excited to build my physique. At first I just did the usual work outs as others. Seeing my interest Murugaraj, a gym mate, introduced me to Powerlifting which I had never heard of before. He taught me the basics of powerlifting and encouraged me to practice powerlifting. He spent extra time for me and we use to work out for nearly 4 hours every day.
Later, he took me to Nagarajan, Secretary, Tamil Nadu Powerlifting Association who owns a gym named Sivanthi Aathithanar Powerlifting Academy in Udayampalayam that runs totally on free of cost basis. It was there I learnt the complete sport. Powerlifting comprises of three portions namely squat, bench press and dead lift. All three together constitutes Powerlifting”, said Barath.
“Subrata Classic Open International Powerlifting Championship – 2015 was my first ever competition and I won the Gold medal for 66 Body Weight Junior category. My college sponsored the entire amount (Rs.45,000) for the competition. In 2016, I participated in the Asian Powerlifting Championship and secured 4th place. Since then I participated in many competitions that took part in India and I’ve won many medals.
My college gave me total support a student could ask for. They indeed arranged separate dates for me to write the university exams every time, being an autonomous college. But for the support and the encouragement my college gave me, I wouldn’t have come thus far,” said Barath with gratitude.
“Now, my only target is to win Gold for India and make our country proud, vowed Barath”. 50 of us are representing India from different parts of country and 3 from Tamil Nadu are participating in the Team India. All three of us are from the same gym”, he added.
My future goal is to win title for India in the “The World Games” scheduled to be held during 2021 at Birmingham (Alabama), USA (4 years once) said the patriotic young man.
– Vignesh Manthiri
Photo: Balaji Remy