A pharmacist employed with the Tihar Jail has brought laurels to Delhi by winning silver and bronze medals in the National Powerlifting Championships. Rahul Khera (28) is expected to get a call to attend the selection camp for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, to be held in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Khera started training for the sport in September 2007. He bagged the gold medal in a championship organised by the Delhi Civil Service Board within months of starting the training. Total weight lifted by him then, was 472.5 kg.
luck did not favour him and he suffered a lower back injury in January 2008. This kept him off the game for about six months and he took a lot of time to recover and bounce back.
In 2012, he made a comeback and won the bronze medal in the 93 kg weight category at the National Powerlifting Championship held at Punjab. The total weight lifted by him in this championship was 645 kg.
Recently, the National Deadlift Powerlifting Championship was held at Jamshedpur in which he won the bronze medal in the 93 kg weight class and total weight lifted was 707.5 kg.
In another National Deadlift Powerlifting Championship organised by the Indian Olympic Association he secured second place in the 93 kg category. He started weight training after his college-mates made fun of him because he was lean and skinny.
Recollecting his experience he said, “In summer, I used to wear a sweater under my t-shirt so that I look fuller. My college-mates used to pull up my t-shirt and make fun of me. I decided to join a gym then,” said Rahul. Rahul hails from Muzzarfarnagar. His father is handicapped and mother is a housewife.
He is now training his younger brother Himanshu, who also bagged a gold medal in the Sub-Junior category (83 kg weight class) in the National Championship. Rahul was a Delhi Pharmacy Council topper and started working at Tihar Prisons from October 2008. “People get the best medical treatment at Tihar which they cannot get anywhere else. No one in the jail can be denied treatment,” he added.