NAGPUR: From sacrificing his childhood to help his family at a small outlet named Sanket Paan Shop to opening India's medal account with a silver in Birmingham, Sangli's Sanket Sargar came a long way.
The 21-year-old, who injured his elbow during his second attempt on Saturday, marginally missed the gold - a target Sanket and his first coach Mayur Sinhasane set in 2017.
In an exclusive interaction with TOI, Mayur explained how Sanket sacrificed his childhood while helping his family and continuing training with an aim to hear the national anthem in England.
Sanket's father Mahadeo used to sell bananas on a cart before he started the paan shop (tapri in Marathi) in his elder son's name, where the family members also sell tea and some breakfast items. A weightlifter himself Mahadeo wanted Sanket to win national medals and earn himself a government job for a secure family life.
Mayur, who himself missed the India berth during the 2010 CWG in Delhi, trains underprivileged students at the Digvijay Weightlifting Institute in Sangli, where not more than 12-15 players can practice at a time. Sanket started his lifting journey in 2013 on his father's insistence when he was in seventh grade.
Mayur's father Nana Sinhasane admitted Sanket into the academy. In 2016 Mayur started guiding youngsters while taking care of every minute requirements including that of Sanket.
Mayur said, "Sanket's main rival in India was Gururaja Poojary and I had told him to watch all his lifts as he needs to beat him to become India No 1 and enter the TOPS core group. During the 2018 CWG when Sanket was making paan for his customer he witnessed how Gururaja won silver in Gold Coast. He then set another target to win gold in Birmingham."
On marginally missing the gold medal - the 2017 target he had set with Mayur, Sanket said, "I am sad because I wanted to stand for gold. I have been training to come here for gold for 4 years now. I trained myself in such a way that I had to secure gold. I am a little disappointed and a little happy that I got a medal but I am a lot sadder."
He added, "This medal, with what India is going through, I would like to dedicate this medal to everyone who has fought for our freedom selflessly without caring about their lives. So, I would like to dedicate it to all those fighters."
Sanket's first gold medal came during the All India University games in 2019 December, then he won the Khelo India youth games in January 2020 before emerging as the senior national champion in March. Due to an elbow injury, Sanket failed to win any medal in Junior nationals in October.
Due to the pandemic the 2021 national championship that was announced in January was cancelled. Then Mayur wrote a mail to the TOPS committee from Sanket's ID to include him in the core group after the weightlifting federation denied the permission.
Thanks to the efforts of a nodal officer in weightlifting, Sanket's past performance gave him a berth in the India camp and he joined NIS Patiala in February 2021. He then started getting a stipend - his first income from weightlifting.
Sanket's qualification process for the CWG started on a disappointing note when he failed during the 2021 world and commonwealth championship in Uzbekistan. He shed tears in front of his coach. Here Mayur played a mentor's role and told him that there's another championship where he will surely qualify. In February 2022 Sanket created a national record in Singapore when he lifted a total of 255kgs (113kg snatch + 142kg jerk) and qualified for Birmingham Games.
Sanket's younger sister Kajol has won Maharashtra's first gold medal in weightlifting during the Khelo India games recently.
While the CWG medal fulfilled his potential, Sanket's pursuit of the coveted gold will continue.
