REPRESENTING Maharashtra, Nagpur strength-lifters excelled in the Western India Strength lifting and IBP Championships 2026 that was held at Brahman Samaj Bhawan, in Dallirajhara Durg,Chhattisgarh recently. The event was hosted by Chhattisgarh Strength lifting Association under the aegis of Indian Strength lifting Federation. The competitions included incline bench press and full strength lifting. Athletes from Maharashtra performed remarkably well in various groups. In the junior 60kg group,Neeraj Advani won a silver in incline bench press and gold medal in strength lifting. In the 68kg and below group, Kartik Singh bagged asilver medal, in 76kg Shashank Mandokar won a silver medal. In the 85kg weight group,Yuvraj Chavan won gold in both categories.Suraj Singh Thakur won asilver in the 95kg weight group while Chaitanya Raut won twin golds in the junior group and asilver medal in the senior group. Inthe senior 76kg group, like in the international competition last year, in this competition too, Ujwal Anil Agarkar won agoldmedal in both incline bench press and strength lifting categories.

 

Tanishk Shukla won asilver in the same senior category. Fardeen Sheikh picked abronze medal in the 85kg category, Mansi Shahu took home a gold medal in the junior 46 kg weight category among women and Ateeba Sheikh won a gold medal in both categories in the 65kg weight category in the senior category. For this stupendous achievement, athletes,team manager Shreyas Rangari and coach Pawan Vaidya were congratulated by Patron of Maharashtra Strength lifting Association Kumar Masram, President Hemant Dongaonkar, Pramod Walmandre, Kishor Bagde, Treasurer of World StrengthliftingAssociation Dr Shrikant Varankar, Sachin Mathane,MaharashtraStrengthlifting Association SecretaryAnand Dabre, Treasurer Chandrashekhar Dhabale,Joint SecretarySaurabh Rangari, Laxmikant Meshram and Akhilesh Pande.