A young weight-lifting paralegal from Wolverhampton has his sights set on the next Commonwealth and Olympic Games after putting in a strong performance in a national contest.
Sundeep Singh Khela, from Goldthorn Park, came second in the British Senior Weightlifting Championships which took place at the National Sport Centre in Lilleshall.
The 23-year-old, who works as a paralegal with the Birmingham office of law firm, Irwin Mitchell, has been weightlifting since the age of 17.
The Championships are divided into categories according to participants’ body weight and strength, with Sundeep competing in the 77kg category.
Commenting on his performance, Sundeep said: “It was a really close fought competition. The crowd were on their feet as it came down to me and one other contender from Scotland called Graeme Kane.”
During the tournament Sundeep achieved a personal best in the clean and jerk section of the competition, lifting 140kg, but was finally beaten by his rival who weighed in at more than half a stone heavier.
Sundeep, who has previously beaten Kane in the under 23s title, has vowed to come back stronger than ever next year in a bid to take first in the British Championships.
He puts in on average 13 hours of training every week and is already the current British Underweight Champion, ranked one of the best in his weight category and has won both the West Midlands and All Midlands weight lifting titles.
He has also won the British underweight competition three years in a row at two different weight categories and has competed at many other national competitions.
Sundeep now has ambitions to win a place on the British team for both the Commonwealth games in 2010 and the Olympic Games in 2012.
