The Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) on Monday said that it will now stop using all equipment that was manufactured in China.
As per reports, the IWLF had decided to boycott all Chinese goods after the violent face-off between the Indian and Chinese army in Ladakh recently.
The association, which had ordered four weightlifting sets, comprising barbells and weight plates, from Chinese company ‘ZKC’ last year, had found each sports equipment to be faulty due to which it had to be abandoned.
The IWLF, in a letter, has informed the Sports Authority of India (SAI) about its decision to stop using any equipment made in China.
“In a letter to SAI we have written that IWLF won’t be using the Chinese equipment,” IWLF secretary general Sahdev Yadav said.
“In future also we will not use Made in China sets. We will use sets made by Indian origin companies or any other company but not from China,” he added.
National coach Vinay Sharma said that the sports equipment were ordered as the lifters needed to be familiar with the usage of Chinese products which are mandatory for usage in the Tokyo Olympics.
However, the weightlifters are currently training with equipment made in Sweden after dumping away the poor quality Chinese goods.
“Post the lockdown we started training on sets from Swedish company ‘ELICKO’. SAI has issued 10 sets for us. The main training takes place with those. Maximum international competitions have sets from ELICKO,” Sharma said.
Calls to boycott China-made goods erupted across India after the Galwan valley clash last Monday.
