“Never looked at Jeremy as my rival, we are great friends,” says Commonwealth Gold medallist Achinta Sheuli

The Indian weightlifting contingent won many accolades at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Apart from Mirabai Chanu, lifters like Jeremy Lalrinnunga and Achinta Sheuli bagged the gold and brought joy to the faces of Indian fans. While everyone expected the weightlifters to perform well at the Commonwealth Games,they did not disappoint one bit as India led the sport in terms of medal count as almost all of their lifters bagged a medal.

Achinta Sheuli was ecstatic as he won the Gold medal and is very tired as well as he has gone through several felicitations since returning home. The youngster recently shared his thoughts and future plans in an interview with TOI.

The young lifter was very happy to return home after three years after fulfilling his objective. He shared how he is happy to see his friends and how so many people arrived at the airport to receive him. The joy in his face was simply unreal as he soaks in the star treatment given by people around him.

It was a great feeling, particularly as I was coming home with the reward that had kept me away from home for these three years. It felt nostalgic coming back to my village (Deulpur) and meet all my friends. So many people had turned up at the airport to receive me. Even in the village, the celebrations continued for days,” he stated.

Sheuli highlighted how he has not got any time to train and will only get back in the regime when he heads back to Patiala. The youngster also shares how he will now start planning for the Paris Olympics as he returns to Patiala and gets back to his daily routine. “I haven’t really started planning for Paris yet. It will start only after I return to Patiala. I will be able to plan only after I sit down with the coach,” he replied when asked about his plans for the Paris Olympics.

Sheuli who has a personal best of 320kgs in his category lifted 312kg at the Commonwealth Games to bag the Gold medal. But the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics went at 342kgs and it is a pretty large gap for the youngster to cover up. But he sounded very confident in his abilities and also in his coach.

“My best is 320 kgs and I think I am capable of doing more than that. In fact, I am quite confident of doing much better than that. With good training and if everything goes well, I will manage to bridge this gap. My coach will finalize my training schedule and he will do it keeping everything in mind,” Sheuli shared.

The young lifter from West Bengal highlighted how he is great friends with Jeremy and their upcoming challenges will only decide if they will turn into rivals or not for now its all very rosy between the two young Indian weightlifters.The two weightlifters are tipped to be competing against each other for a slot in the Men’s 73kgs category at the Paris Olympics and therefore things can take a different turn.

“We are great friends and I have never looked upon him as a rival. As such, we haven’t started preparing for the Olympics. Only after we start will we know whether we will be rivals or not,” he concluded.