Daijiworld Media Network - Dubai (DRD)

Dubai, Mar 22: Powerlifter Gulshan Banu Kazi has not only made her native Udupi, India  proud but also Dubai proud by securing a world record among the master category athletes in the Professional Raw Organisations Push-Pull Championship 2022, a national level event held in Bengaluru recently. 

This sporting event held at Onyx Fitness was one of the most popular internationally sanctioned national powerlifting championships, consisting of three main events -Bench Press, Deadlifts and Push-Pull.

Record holder Gulshan Banu Kazi is a 43-year-old mother of three, working six days a week at a corporate office in Dubai.

A native of Udupi, she is from Udupi and an alumnus of St Cecily's and PPC College here .

She is a competitive Powerlifter. Powerlifting is a form of competitive weightlifting in which the contestants attempt three types of lifts in a set sequence, squat, bench press, and deadlift.

Gulshan started powerlifting training in the year 2019.

The training is tough. She trains at least four times a week for about 90 minutes each time and keeps a watch on her nutrition intake and sleep pattern.

She has been participating in a powerlifting competition in UAE and did well there. One of her latest has been the Pro-League National Championship-2022 where she hit five personal records and registered a World Record in Deadlifts (U82.5kg Masters and Open Category) by pulling 180 kgs. She becomes the first woman of India in her age and her weight category to pull off this deadlift.

Last April, she participated in the WPC National Powerlifting Championship securing four gold medals in Bengaluru. Gulshan Kazi won the Best Lifter Award in the Masters' category.

Gulshan used to be above 100 kgs till 2016 when she suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Resistance training and tracking her food intake enabled her to start losing weight and gaining muscle. Soon after, she was introduced to powerlifting and has been consistent at it ever since.

She is grateful to Raju Pal, her first coach who introduced her to powerlifting and taught her all the basics.

Now she is training under Mohammad Azmat who is a multiple-time national and international medalist in powerlifting, having won medals for India in different federations. He has been coaching her since 2020.

Gulshan Kazi is looking forward to her representation at World Championships and working hard to make  India proud.