With just a few days to go to the kick off of the Asian Junior Weightlifting Championships, the Post caught up with the Nepal Weightlifting Association President Ratan Kumar Tandon and talked about the big event. Excerpts:

How did you manage to bring this event in Nepal?

I was planning to bring international event in Nepal soon after I was elected as president. Hosting international event will definitely help boost and motivate Nepali weightlifters. We started with the first South Asian Weightlifting Championships in Nepalgunj three years ago. After successful hosting of the event, we were able to persuade AWF in the congress to grant us the hosting rights for Asian Senior Men’s and Women’s event in July 2015. Unfortunately, we were unable to host that event due to earthquake but still kept on chasing our ambitions and landed this event. 

How will Nepal benefit from the tournament?

The Championships will benefit Nepal the most. Despite very low investment, players are coming from the grassroot level. In the past, there was a trend of getting into weightlifting only after 20 years of age. But now we have 40 weightlifters in youth and junior level. From that pool, 13 weightlifters are competing in the Champion-ships. This event will definitely help in players’ development. Besides, International Weightlifting Federation has assured us that we will be provided hosting rights for the World Championships in 2019 if we manage to successfully pull this event off.  

How have you managed the fund to organise it?

Asian Weightlifting Federation (AWF) and International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) each will provide 25 percent of the total cost, which amount to estimated Rs 17.5 million. We have demanded 40 percent of the total budget from National Sports Council and they are positive to our demands. 

What are the challenges in hosting such big event? 

To manage the accommodation was one of the biggest challenges I have felt so far. We have managed the accommodation of our guests in three separate hotels. Proper infrastructure was another problem we had but we are using the Nepal Army facility in Lalitpur. 

One major challenge still remains: successful completion of the championship. We 

hope to pull it off.