Anujan Srikantha, a British Tamil athlete representing England, has made history by clinching gold at the 2024 Commonwealth Powerlifting Championship held in Sun City, South Africa earlier this year.
Competing in the Men’s Classic Benchpress Championships, Srikantha not only emerged victorious in the 83kg division but also earned the prestigious title of Best Male Lifter, a recognition for benching the highest weight relative to body weight across all classes.
Srikantha’s stellar performance saw him bench an impressive 192.5kg while weighing just 82kg.
Video courtesy: White Lights Media.
A journey of strength
Reflecting on his journey, Srikantha told the Tamil Guardian that his introduction to powerlifting began during his university years at Loughborough. Joining the university gym marked the start of his love for lifting heavy, moving away from traditional bodybuilding routines.
“I genuinely enjoyed going to the gym and just lifting heavy rather than the normal bodybuilding style training more people were familiar with back then,” he explained.
His talent for powerlifting was apparent from the outset. “I felt naturally I was pretty good at it and was fairly competitive with experienced people even as a beginner. Ever since then, I’ve been doing it for about six years now and have done at least 20 competitions in that time frame, and three of them internationally,” he added.
Srikantha’s ambitions now extend beyond Commonwealth glory. His ultimate goal is to secure the bench press world record.
“At one point, I was about 19kg away from that, but sadly it’s gotten a bit higher. But that’s the one goal that I’m really working towards at the moment,” he said.
Qualifying for the Commonwealth Championship was no small feat. Srikantha described the rigorous process of earning a spot on Team England.
“To get picked to represent England, there is a qualifying process. You have to do some national competitions, and as long as you win that, your name gets put forward to compete for them. So I did a competition in the UK in April, which I won, so I was able to go to South Africa,” he explained.
Tamil representation in Powerlifting
Srikantha was not the only Eelam Tamil representation at the championships. Jaffna bassed 29-year-old Satkunarasa Pushanthan also bagged a silver medal at the international competition.
Srikantha acknowledged the growing interest in powerlifting within the Tamil community.
“Since I started powerlifting, I’ve seen a lot of growth with Tamils joining in too. Powerlifting is a very fast-growing sport, and I do believe it’s getting more popular within the Tamil community,” he observed.
He emphasized the potential impact of a Tamil fitness influencer championing the sport, noting that such representation could inspire even more individuals to explore powerlifting.