Talha goes for Olympic medal today

KARACHI: Pakistan’s promising young weightlifter Talha Talib will compete in the 67 kilogramme weightlifting competitions of the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday (today).

Talha, who recently lifted a snatch bronze in the Asian Championship in Tashkent, is in top shape and is eager to pull off a surprise and finish at the victory podium at the biggest sporting stage.

“I have worked hard and I am hopeful that God will reward me for the hard work I have done,” Talha told ‘The News’ from Tokyo on Saturday.

“The fight is very tough but I will try to put in my best and will try to cover the missed lifts of the last event and improve my performance here,” he said.

Talha is very strong in snatch as he recently secured bronze in the Asian Championship. He will need not only to better his snatch but will have to also show marked improvement in clean and jerk.

Talha’s competition will start at 3:50 pm PST.

‘The News’ has learnt that he lifted 175 kilogramme weight in clean and jerk during training at Gujranwala. If he is able to lift 175 kg in Tokyo also and also improve a couple of kilogrammes in snatch, he may reach the victory podium.

Talha is featuring in the Olympics on the basis of the IOC Invitation Place. Talha reached Tokyo on July 22 and got only a couple of days before his competition.

A weightlifting expert said that Talha needed at least ten days to get acclimatised with the conditions before the competition.

The big issue was that Pakistani athletes took around 50 hours to reach Tokyo because of a lengthy stop-over at Doha Airport.