Again, loads of fun in the train. We were given rooms in their hostel named “Zanskaar”. My best memory is of the times we would sit in front of the fire that was lit in front of their version of Guru, which was right behind our hostel, drinking sweet lime juice. It brings back fond memories- you have to be a member of the inter IIT contingent to know what inter IIT means. Vikrant also accompanied the team- he lived in Delhi, so he came to IIT Delhi every morning. We made him sit at our practice and and at the competition; we made him lift backstage, where we warmed up. He is a really strong lifter, and we told the other teams that he was a fresher and he wasn’t in the team because of team size constraints – all the other teams would get intimidated looking at his strength.
My vision for this third inter IIT was about going there and showing the others how good we were. We knew we were good enough and we were hungry after our disappointing performance in the previous inter IIT. The first thing in inter IIT was March Past. Some members of the contingent were apparently passed out and some were too lazy to turn up, and we had lost some points for attendance in March Past (and all of us who attended were extremely pissed about that). The events started. We weren’t doing very well. In fact, we were losing – it didn’t stop us from being bored enough to be watching the matches of the other teams and cheering them on. Basketball was our favorite.
We had two serious problems- Bala did not leave to Delhi along with the contingent as he was sitting for placements. He hadn’t had much practice during Main Camp either. Moot had a minor back injury in the first few days of Main camp, and he spent the rest of the camp doing only light weights to allow for recuperation. Our chances of winning were still not 100%. But we were all very focused, ready to push our limits to get that gold. We had to make some small sacrifices- 1 or 2 days before our competition, there was a dinner and a DJ. We couldn’t eat much there as we had to keep our body weights in our respective weight classes. We didn’t want to dance for too long since we didn’t want to take the risk of getting even a small cramp. Moot fell ill out of nervousness. Among some of the crazy stuff he did was eating a lot of coffee powder on the day of the competition to stay awake. And he would also ask us to pull his hair and slap him before he would go for his lift, just to stay awake and focussed (we often have to give the same treatment to Balaji and ISI). Bala had arrived in a flight just the night before the competition, at around 11 PM.
The competition began. In the under 56kg category, Bala perfromed exceedingly well in snatch, and he attempted the highest weight in Clean and Jerk ever attempted in his weight class. He won silver and thus started our winning streak. My round was a cakewalk. My lifts were 73kg snatch, 97kg clean & jerk- both new Inter-IIT records. Balaji and Dilli contributed 1 point each. We were on top with 10 points on the first day. That night, Deba, the then Volley captain, came to my room and asked me to write down what I felt like when I won my first inter IIT Gold. He said that on that night I would feel very different from the other nights. And I did write. Quoting a little from what I wrote-
“The feeling after getting that gold was not happiness or excitement, but just a sense of relief, for I had not fought hard for that medal, I was not struggling with the weight. I had to lift less than what I could. It was nothing like in the Olympics, lifters struggling with the weight, shouting their lungs out, giving it all they got. It was just about staying focused and thinking about my lift. In the end, it was about keeping my mindset in those 30 seconds of each lift. “
“We, Weightlifters, probably have inspired all the other teams from our institute, we have inspired them with our performances- Me, Dilli, Bala and Balaji. As ISI said before I went for the 97kg Clean and Jerk, I showed them what Weightlifting is like. I am satisfied, if not happy. I’m relieved, if not excited.”
Came day 2. Moot gave his worst performance ever in the under 69kg class, yet he bagging a silver. In the under 77kg category, ISI got a little unfortunate in his 3rd call in Snatch – his foot slipped and he fell down when trying 88kg (he could do 90kg). The other contestant in his category is an extremely good lifter and he managed to beat ISI with 1kg to win gold. Asif did his best, but couldn’t get any medal, and Lalu got injured during the competition and had to forfeit his calls. Finally, IITM won Gold, with 16 points. That moment was ecstatic. Coming from 0 points in 2009 to Gold in 2010 was an awesome feeling. The feeling I experienced when the team won the Gold was much more euphoric than what I got from my personal medal. The Gold was actually confirmed the moment ISI got his silver. And right after his lifts, we all lifted him up in the air, we were dancing and shouting. Words can’t describe that feeling.
Some guys from the hockey, volleyball and football teams came to watch our competition. I do not know if our performances had any sort of psychological effect on them, but after our competition, our other teams started winning. The first few days were really bad for us, but towards the end we started doing better. On the last day, we were in the Finals in hockey, TT and Volley.
