Puneite bags two gold medals at Kettlebell World Championship in Tokyo

Four years ago, when city-based Parag Mhetre wanted to take training in Kettlebell lifting, he couldn’t find a single place in the country that imparted training in the sport. So, he went to the US and underwent a month-long training at a sports club.

After coming back, he collaborated with various health clubs and held workshops on functional training in Kettlebell – a cast-iron or steel weight used to do exercises that combine strength, cardiovascular and flexibility training. Mhetre has just returned to the city after participating in the World Championship for Kettlebell held in Tokyo, Japan, where he has bagged two gold medals in two competitions – Clean & Jerk and Snatch.

Through both wins, Mhetre has made a new Asian record in the field of Kettlebell lifting.

The achievement has also made him the first Indian and fourth Asian to achieve CMS (Candidate for Master of Sports) ranking.

The championship in Japan saw as many as 150 participants from eight countries.

“The competition was tough mainly because Russians are stronger than Indians. However, my biggest challenge was that I had to face both events on the same day with a gap of just 45 minutes to an hour between them, which is a short period to recover and come back to lift,” says the 36-year-old.

While in Snatch, he lifted 32 kg Kettlebell for 10 minutes non-stop (75 repetitions or reps), in Clean & Jerk he lifted 2×24 kg Kettlebell (total 48kgs), again for nonstop 10 minutes (65 reps). This is not his first win in the field of Kettlebell. In 2013, he won a gold medal at the Asian Kettlebell Competition, Thailand and in 2014, he placed fifth at World Championship, Germany.

Though comparatively less popular in India, Kettlebell sport is the national sport of Russia and is mostly played in Southeast Asia, USA, Russia and the UK. For the past three years, Mhetre has been organising Kettlebell championships in various parts of the country.

“As compared to other parts of the world, the sport is yet to pick up in India. However, awareness is growing gradually and I do see it gaining popularity in the next three-four years,” he says.

Mhetre shares that his ease with Kettlebell is due to his background in martial arts which he got introduced to in 1994.

In 1999, he won a silver medal at the Dutch Open held in Holland and in 2000, he won a bronze medal at World Karate Competition in Germany.

“One can say that martial arts provided me good conditioning for Kettlebell,” says Mhetre, who was once an engineer but is now full time into Kettlebell.

After doing engineering from DY Patil College, he worked in the US for at least seven years.

Not ready to sit back on his laurels, Mhetre has set his eyes on his next target – Master of Sports (MS), which is the highest Kettlebell ranking.

“While this year I missed it by 25 reps, I’m aiming for the same in next year’s California Open championships,” he says.