As you enter the sparsely ventilated weightlifting room filled with chalk dust, your attention would quickly shift to the shouts of motivation echoing throughout the room as a powerlifter makes his attempt at a Personal Record (PR), and others carrying on with their intense exercises grunting and occasionally admiring themselves in the mirror. The captain Biswajit Biswas was seen going around guiding and motivating the team members, pushing them to breach their limits. He graciously spares 15 minutes from his training regimen to talk to us about the upcoming BOSM powerlifting event.

Describing the obscure sport, he says ‘Powerlifting consists of three lifts – the Squat, the Deadlift, and the Bench-press. Contestants are divided into different weight categories according to the International Powerlifting Federation guidelines, and are given three attempts at each lift. The contestant has to register the weight he is going to attempt prior to the lift and isn’t allowed to lower it in further attempts. Hence a lot of planning goes into this sport which, to an outsider, seems to be one of just brute strength.’ The winner is declared by totaling the best of the three attempts in all the lifts.

The team participating in BOSM ’18 comprises six third yearites and two fourth yearite members. The captain is doubtful of his own participation due to a nagging back injury. Talking about the higher proportion of participants in the over 83 kg category Biswajit assures us that ‘we have strong players in almost every weight bracket’. Udayveer Singh, Abhijit Kumar and Aakash Bist (a debutant) are expected to win medals.

‘Teams in powerlifting mainly belong to two categories- ones that have quality and the ones that have quantity’ he says. The “quantity” teams enter a large number of players into different categories, expecting a few silver and bronze medals. On the other hand, the “quality” teams focus on a few categories, but gun for golds. The team expects tough competition from Manav Rachna College (which set a few records in BOSM ’17), NIT Jaipur and BKBIET.

Talking about his own experiences with this sport, Biswajit tells us that he began powerlifting in his third semester. He participated in his first BOSM after a year, which is the typical incubation period for a new recruit, and became the captain in his sixth semester. His responsibilities as a captain include managing the training routine of the team and regularly motivating and guiding other BITSians who come to the gym. ‘We organize training camps for the general BITSian in both the semesters. This helps them give a structure to their workout and develop a habit of working out’ says Biswajit.

Since the team only has 3rd and 4th years who probably wouldn’t be active from next year, there were concerns about the future of the team. He dismissed them saying that there are a handful of second years who have been training with the team. ‘They should be competition ready by the next outstation tournament and ready to replace their seniors next year,’ he adds.

He expresses his desire of seeing more BITSians participate in sports in the future. ‘We all were told that health is wealth as kids. It’s high time that people start working on their fitness,’ says Biswajit, as he returns to his grind.