My inter IIT journey - Part 2 (2009)

5 out of the 9 guys in the team, including Jumper and Koted, passed out that year. We were left with me, Balaji, Moot, ISI (Rajesh Reddy) and Dilli (Ravikant Karan). Dilli was our captain. Like me, 2008 was his first inter IIT too. Bala (Jagadeshwar rao), Asif and Lalu (Vinay Paliwal) were new additions to the team. Dilli was extremely optimistic and he made us believe that we actually had a shot at getting the Weightlifting gold in inter IIT that year. Me, Moot and ISI were pretty much at the same level, our maximum lifts differed by only some 3-5kg. But being in a lower weight class, I had a better chance for a medal in inter IIT and Moot (in under 69kg) and ISI (in under 77kg) were a long way from getting a medal.

The odd sem in 2009 was an awesome time for us. That was when our team was built, with five 2^nd years, two 3^rd years and a 5^th year guy. We were always in high spirits. We trained hard, we had lots of fun and we would always stick together. One thing was really good about our team in both 2009, 2010- Me, Moot and ISI competed against each other all the time. I was very strong in Clean & Jerk and both of them tried to beat me in that and I tried to equal them in Snatch. It kept increasing the level of fight we put. Schroeter happened, our lifts were good. I put gold in Schroeter and was also the Best Lifter. It was all going great. All during Main Camp and till our competition started, I was very confident that I would put gold in inter IIT.

We left for IIT Kanpur some 4 days before inter IIT started. The train trip, my first with friends, was great. IITK is too good, the rooms are bigger than ours, they're hostels are really good, the mess food was of better quality, each hostel had its own canteen and a nice lawn in front of it, the sports fields were all new and way better than ours. All of us, except ISI and Dilli, got single rooms. So, everytime we had to meet or party, we'd sit in the double room. Or we'd go to Asif's room and watch a movie he downloaded from youtube, or just play cards. This inter IIT, my 2^nd one, was all about having fun and being with the team. It was more like we were on some kind of fun trip than in a sports meet.

If I must use one word to describe our team in 2009, it would be “naive”. We had really good lifters, members of all IIT Weightlifting teams know that now. The potential was there,, but we failed to gauge the level of the competition before it started. Even today I keep blaming myself for screwing up in that competition the way I did. I had a sure chance of getting gold and still I messed up, missing 68kg snatch twice when I could do 72kg. I had to be content with 4^th place, lifting only 2kg less than bronze and 7kg less than gold. The others, especially Balaji, Moot and ISI, gave their best, but were not up to the mark. Ultimately, nobody in the entire team got even a single point. We were expecting to win gold in Weightlifting. We lost. We realized that we were inexperienced and we needed more time and effort. We knew we had a long way to go, but we had our experience and we weren't going to screw up again.

Just like in Main Camp, even during inter IIT, our team is famous for being totally jobless. We have our competition on 3 days out of the 7-8 days of inter IIT. The rest of the time, we'd just go around watching other sports and cheering our teams. And then there was the partying that you shouldn't write about on the insti magazines. Before we left for inter IIT, we told the sports sec that we were going to win gold in Weightlifting. We cupped. But then, every other team (except TT, Volley) lost. Inter-IIT 2009 was a complete disaster for IITM. We were placed 5^th. Our team was relieved – atleast we weren't the only guys who cupped. And so, the lesson was learnt and the chapter was closed.