Injury-battered Jeremy eyes comeback with Asiad berth dream

Jeremy Lalrinnunga was on top of the world about four years ago when he won the weightlifting gold in the 67kg category at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham with a record performance.Since that high, his career graph has kept falling despite him trying best to perform and one of the major reasons behind it has been his continuing injuries and the surgeries to fix them.In Jan 2023, he first underwent Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) treatment on his left elbow to treat the injury he sustained during CWG. Later, after the Asian Championships, he was diagnosed with a left-side cervical spinal disc bulge, for which doctors advised two months of rest.

He did make a strong comeback winning gold and the best lifter award in the nationals in Dec.“But in Nov 2024, I again had to undergo surgery on my left shoulder after it was fractured during the national championships in Himachal Pradesh,” said Jeremy during an exclusive interaction with TOI.He grabbed a bronze there, but it was the last time that he competed for almost one and a half years. It was a difficult period as he even doubted whether his shoulder would heal completely.

But aiming to make it to the Asian Games later this year, he finally competed again in Feb this year in the nationals in Modinagar, UP, where he bagged a bronze in the 65kg category — 2kg lower than his earlier category. “Even though I’ve won a bronze medal, considering what I’ve endured, the difficulties I’ve faced, I’m very happy with this medal. It has motivated me a lot for future preparation and even better performances,” said the former youth Olympic champion, who reduced almost 4-5kgs since the last tournament.

While he did finish on the podium, he will now need all the support he can get to make it to the two major events, something which he didn’t receive after he was removed from the national camp. “GoSports Foundation has supported me a lot. However, the kind of support I used to receive after winning stopped. Some people from the Army also supported me during this time,” he added.His family has also been a major source of encouragement and recently he built a house for them in Aizawl, but all his focus is now on making the cut for the Asiad to be held in Japan.

“I will need to do at least 310 kg total, and I’ll try to do even more. I’ve done 310 kg in training as well, so I just need to apply that at the national level,” said Jeremy, who has been training at the Army Sports Institute (ASI) all this while and also wants to make it to the LA Olympics.It’s going to be a rather difficult challenge considering he lifted 295kg during the nationals that also included three failed attempts. He, however, is confident of achieving the target with proper support. “My shoulder, let’s say, is like a one-year-old baby in terms of my body because for one year I was just sitting idle. So, I need to do a lot of strength work on that and pay a lot of attention to my diet and my therapy,” said the 23-year-old.One certainly believes he can achieve that but whether he will be taken back to the national fold or not remains to be seen.