Newshub18 :Don’t let father sell betel leaves anymore!Said the boy who won medals for India
Ahlyadevi Holkar road in Sangli in southern Maharashtra is not crowded during the afternoon. But by noon yesterday, the crowd of people increased in front of a tea and drink shop on the side of this road. One or two members of the media also came there.
14-inch Videocon TV screen in the shop in front of everyone’s eyes. Sanket Mahadev Sargar, son of this shop, is competing in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The eyes fixed on the TV screen instantly brightened. In weightlifting, Sanket won silver medal in boys’ 55 kg weight category.
The right hand was injured. Sanket got on the victory stage with his hand tied in a sling. Darkness in the eyes. What a matter! This time, India got its first medal at the Commonwealth Games. Where the 21-year-old boy will be swept away in joy, is darkness in his eyes. In fact, Sanket could not keep his promise to his father. After winning the silver in Birmingham, he said, ‘I promised my father, I will win the gold medal. I won silver, but father is happy with that.
Sanket’s father Mahadev Anand Sargar owns this tea and beverage shop. He runs the shop. In the absence of his father, Sanket also ran a shop himself. But now he wants to change the fate. India’s newspaper “Times of India” Sanket said, “I hope this position will change the fate of my family.” I don’t want to see my father in the liquor shop anymore.’
Sanket was on the way to winning the gold medal. But coming into the clean and jerk event, he failed to lift the weight twice because of a right arm injury. Get injured while lifting weights.
Sanket could not hide the regret of not winning the gold despite winning the silver. In his words, “Father said, it would have been better to win gold.” But I am happy. Fortune changes with gold, it’s about father. Family is motivating me, but gold is gold. Many athletes’ fortunes change after winning a medal. Government helps. I also want to help my family. I don’t want my father to be a shopkeeper anymore. Family has sacrificed a lot for me. I am dedicating the medal to them. Sanket’s father Mahadev came to Sangli region in the 90s. In the beginning he used to sell fruits by ferry. After saving some money, he opened a liquor store.
Later Mahadev opened another tea and breakfast shop next to the shop. Born in 2000, Sanket naturally had to help out in the shop after growing up a little bit by hand. Sanket said, ‘Tea is our special drink. Apart from this, I learned to make white paan, mitha paan and masala paan—at a very young age.’But Sanket’s father, Mahadev, had something else in mind. He did not want to make his son a drink shopkeeper. He could not fulfill his dream of becoming a player by falling into the trap of life. So when Sanket was 12 years old, he took him one day to a weightlifting training center located next to the shop. Well, that’s the start!
For the first few years of practice, Sanket only lifted weights. He had no idea what the competition was, how it was conducted at the national and international level. Sanket won silver in weightlifting at the divisional level in ninth grade without much practice. Sanket then realized something. If he practiced a little more, he could have won the gold medal. Father told him, ‘I don’t want you to spend your life in the shop. Everything is in your hands.’ Sanket understood that day, ‘If I don’t give my best, I will never reach the national level.’
But dreaming of a Commonwealth Games is still a long way to go. And growing up as a professional athlete was also challenging for him at that time. It was not easy to continue practicing while taking care of the work of the shop, ‘Then if my father could not go to the shop for some work, I would sit in the shop after the practice. The work was difficult. Because, accounts had to be reconciled every day and everything had to be taken care of by the employeesThe rest is history. And apart from Sanket’s medals and honors in that history, there is one more achievement, ‘People used to know it only as Sanket’s drinking shop. Now Commonwealth Games medalists will recognize Sanket as a drink shop.