Talented Weightlifter Renu Bala Achieves Her Gold

By Wajiha Shah

Yumnam Renu Bala Chanu, the young weightlifter, who did the nation proud by once again winning a gold in the 58 kg class in the Commonwealth Games, has matured from a shy girl into a confident weightlifter. While in the last edition of the Games held at Melbourne, when she was just 20, Renu had had aimed only for a silver or a bronze and was quite surprised with herself when she ended up winning a gold, this time she had aimed for a gold and she got it.

Indeed, a four-year effort has borne fruit for Renu Bala who has been a trainee of SAI (Sports Authority of India) centre of excellence for weightlifting at Sports College, Lucknow.

She had set this target four years back itself. Talking to The Indian Express after winning the gold at Commonwealth Games at Melbourne in 2006, the shy and simple weightlifter had confided, “Actually I was just aiming for a silver or a bronze at Melbourne. I kept my cool and continued to follow the advice of my coach Hansa Sharma. I was quite surprised when I won the gold. I now aim at repeating my performance in the 2010 Commonwealth Games.”

At Lucknow, the Manipur girl had undergone coaching under Hansa Sharma and GP Sharma. Belonging to Koiamgei Mayai Leikoi village located near Imphal, Renu Bala was selected for training during a ‘talent hunt’ camp of SAI at Imphal in the year 2000 when she was just 14. It was in 1999, when she won a silver in the state championship, when people started realising her talent and recommended her name to the SAI selectors. Her dedication towards the sport could be gauged by the fact that she used to do up down daily to the Khuman Lampak stadium at Imphal for practice.

GP Sharma who was in Delhi to see his former trainee perform today, was full of praise for Renu, “I was confident of a gold from her. Renu too is very happy with her feat and now intends to share her joy with her family.

She was always very hard-working. Sweating it out for over six hours daily, she started yielding results for the country quite early. Her early achievements included a silver in the Sub-Junior Asian Championship-2002.

The same year she was placed fourth in the Junior Asian Championship as well as the Junior World Championship. In 2003, she won a silver in the Junior Asian Championship and in 2004 she won a gold in the Commonwealth Championship besides medals at the national and state level.”

“Renu left SAI centre in 2008 at Lucknow as she got a job in NFR, Guwahati. The fact that she created a record in the Commonwealth Games today in the snatch event speaks volumes of her talent. She has a bright future,” Sharma further added.