visakhapatnam sincerity dedication and willpower coupled with sheer hard work put a 16yearold weightlifter sanapati guru naidu from an interior village in the north andhra region on top of the world the son of a farm labourer couple from chandrampeta in nellimarla mandal of vizianagaram district showed his mettle in the world arena by bagging the firstever gold medal in world youth weightlifting championship in mexico on mondaynaidu the youngest of the three sons of ramaswamy is now aiming to win an olympic gold medal for the country guided properly towards medal chasing efforts by the wellknown international medalist and coach deva kumar army the boy has been showing record performance not only at national level but also at international level competitionsnaidu an inmate of boys sports company of artillery center in secunderabad faced a lot of hurdles due to his familys poor financial background but ramaswamy who wanted to become a bodybuilder left the sport due to financial crisis and his boxer brother kamu naidu encouraged him a lotmy family supported me a lot and my coach treats me like his son because of him i achieved this feat i will focus on the olympic medal for my country poverty has never been a hurdle for me because of my parents support and coachs encouragement naidu told toi over phone from mexicognaidu developed an interest in weightlifting when he saw lifters practising on his way to school he learned the basics of weightlifting from famous coach challa ramu of kondavelagada village who runs a training centre in chandrampet village i observed him for almost three months before teaching him weightlifting i wanted to know whether he can continue or not but he has a stubborn mind and willingness to work hard coach challa ramu saidnaidu was picked by boys sports company coach deva kumar during a selection program in the district he nurtured him for fourandahalf years to become a world champion he has the quality to adapt very fast he has sincerity discipline and he works hard he is an olympic medal material but our focus is on the gold medal in the commonwealth games in 2026 his coach deva kumar told toithe boy started his career in the national championship by rewriting four national records at bodh gaya in 2019 and won a bronze medal in an international meet in 2020 he created another national record in bhubaneswar this year by lifting 102 snatch125 jerk 227 kg he surpassed that in mexico 104126 with 230 kg and claimed gold