Mangaluru: Aren Joy Fernandes, a first-year student of Electronics and Communication Engineering at St Joseph Engineering College (SJEC), Mangaluru, brought laurels to the college by winning the gold medal in the Asian Classic Powerlifting Championship held in Kazakhstan from December 2 to 8.
He secured the first place in squat, second place in deadlift and first place in the overall below 66 kg powerlifting championship (squat 180 kg, bench press 97.5 kg, deadlift 215 kg, totalling a weight of 492.5 kg).
Aren, who entered sports at a very young age, has six gold, five silver medals to his credit in various state, national and international level championships.
Some of his other achievements include:
- Gold Medal in State level Sub Junior category Powerlifting held at Puttur
- Gold Medal in State level Sub Junior category Powerlifting and Bronze Medal in Junior category held at Kundapur
- Silver Medal in Sub Junior category Equipped National Powerlifting held at Chennai
- Silver Medal in Sub Junior category along with National Meet Record in Deadlift at Raw National Powerlifting held in Kerala
- Gold Medal with 4 new Meet Records (Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift & total weight) and VTU Strong Man title in VTU Single Zone Powerlifting held at Nitte
- Gold Medal in Equipped State Bench Press Sub Junior category and Bronze Medal in Senior category at Kudroli
He was feted by the college management during a programme in the presence of his mother Anandi Fernandes.
