New Delhi: An amount of Rs. 3.73 crore has been spent so far under ‘Operation Excellence for London Olympics 2012’ (OPEX 2012) scheme on the training/ foreign exposure to weightlifters. Out of this, a sum of Rs. 2.78 crore was spent on conducting National Coaching Camps for training of 50 core probables (24 men and 26 women), the number has been pruned to 26 (17 men and 9 women),. There are six coaches and four supporting personnel. Apart from that, Indian team participated in three international competitions during 2011.
The total expenditure incurred towards the international exposure came to Rs. 1.95 crore till 31.12.2012. Three camps of a total duration of 247 days were conducted till December, 2011. The training began in March, 2011 to give these weightlifters enough time to prepare for London games. This was stated by Sahdev Yadav, secretary general, Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) in review meeting of the preparation for Olympics, 2012, called by sports minister Ajay Maken.
In the meeting, it was mentioned that govt has decided to enhanced money for food supplement for core probables of all power games, including weightlifting, from Rs. 250 per day to Rs. 500 per day till the London Olympics. Yadav said that though no weightlifter had as yet qualified for London Olympics, the federation was confident that at least three weightlifters would make in the senior Asian Weightlifting Championships to be held at Pyeongtaek, Korea from April 22-30.
In Beijing Olympics, 2008, one weightlifter had qualified but couldn’t compete due to doping issue. In 2000 Sydney Olympics Karnam Malleswari had won bronze in 63 kg category while in Athens Olympics, Kunjurani Devi finished fourth in 48 kg category.