Indian weightlifting gets first high-performance director

The Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) will get the services of its first high-performance director, Aveenash Pandoo, until the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

The Union Sports Ministry has approved the appointment of Pandoo at an annual salary of $ 54,000 (approximately ₹ 40.50 lakh), said a release on Friday.

The HPD has been appointed with the specific focus on development of junior talent with an eye on the 2028 Olympics. Pandoo will also help create a strong coaching structure to help India produce international champions.

IWLF president Sahdev Yadav told The Hindu that Pandoo – who has the experience of working with the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) on the Development and Education Committee (from 2013 to 2017) – would join duty at the end of this month. “Even though his appointment is up to Paris 2024, it can be reviewed and can be extended,” said Yadav.

“He will look after our junior development programmes at National Centres of Excellence (NCOEs) in Patiala, Aurangabad and Lucknow. He will prepare a programme, make the schedule and look after technical aspects of training. Besides, he will help prepare a new syllabus for the weightlifting (diploma) course at NIS Patiala. The existing course is outdated. He will also travel around to look for talent,” said Yadav.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) and IWLF have laid down specific key result areas for the HPD, including devising a training programme and introduction of scientific monitoring system for NCOE athletes, designing Long-Term Athlete Development Pathway and Gap Analysis, developing a competition structure for NCOE athletes and the introduction of transparent ranking system as well as a robust talent identification system to improve India’s bench strength.

Pandoo is expected to assist in the Coach Development Programmes for 100 coaches and Referee Development Programmes for 60 referees each year.

The 46-year-old Pandoo, a Mauritian who is based in South Africa, will come to India with more than two decades of coaching experience in South Africa and Indonesia. In his role as HPD, Pandoo was instrumental in helping two Indonesian lifters get medals in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

From his base in Cape Town in South Africa, Pandoo said, “I am confident that I will deliver an impeccable performance. I will bring my best experience to the youth and junior areas to assist in identification (of talent) and develop the performance.”

Yadav said the HPD would have “no role” in the senior lifters’ training which had been going on smoothly under the supervision of chief coach Vijay Sharma.