By A O News Service
ITANAGAR, Oct 16: Arunachal Pradesh Weightlifting Association president Abraham K Techi become the first from Arunachal Pradesh to qualify for International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) certified Category-I international technical official (ITO) in weightlifting.
He is now eligible to officiate in any international event, including the Olympics, world championships, Commonwealth and Asian Games.
Techi, who is also one of the vice presidents of Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) and Arunachal Olympic Association (AWA) senior vice-president, had been a Category-II ITO since 2016. It takes minimum eight years to qualify for Category-I ITO from Category-II.
The AWA general secretary Biku Sarita became the first female from the state to become a Category-II ITO in weightlifting. It may also be mentioned here that she is the first woman in the country to rise to the rank of general secretary of a weightlifting association in August 2019.
The duo had appeared for ITO examination conducted by the IWF, the world controlling body for weightlifting, in January last, Techi told this daily over telephone.
It may be recalled here that in November 2013, Abraham as IWF joint secretary was appointed as an international referee to become first international referee from Arunachal and fourth from the NE region.
Arunachal Pradesh despite lacking modern amenities even in the capital city had hosted National Weightlifting Championship in November 2017, whose success due to all out efforts of Abraham had drawn national attention to this remote Himalayan state and its capable sports personalities. Thus, his rise in the weightlifting ladder was a foregone conclusion.
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