Pakistan’s first gold medallist Nooh Dastagir Butt in 2022
Since becoming Pakistan’s first gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Wednesday, the 24-year-old weightlifter has been lapping up the adulation coming his way.
Nooh has received messages of congratulations from all over the world. Just about everyone wants a piece of him right now. But with his phone broken, the only way to get to him is through his coach Irfan Butt. That is if you’re lucky enough to get through considering Irfan has been flooded with calls and interview requests. “My phone is broken,” Nooh told Dawn in an exclusive interview from Birmingham on Thursday night. “I just got an iPhone but I can’t set it up because I can’t get an OTP on my Pakistani SIM card.”
A night earlier, Nooh broke the Commonwealth record in the men’s +109kg final when he lifted a total weight of 405kg to leave other competitors in the shade. “The aim from the start was to get gold at these games,” said Nooh, referring to his bronze at the previous edition of the quadrennial spectacle at Australia’s Gold Coast. “I just put in everything I had.
“It’s the fruit of labour … the hard work we put in to train,” he added. “It’s a tough regimen and you have to train three hours twice each day to keep yourself fit and focused.”
Weightlifting runs in the family for Nooh. His father, Ghulam Dastagir Butt, is a 16-time national champion while his brother, Hanzala, also competed at the Games on Wednesday in the -109kg final in but couldn’t bring home a medal.
“I wanted to do it for my father … I’d promised him I’ll win gold,” informed Nooh. “I called my family as soon as I’d won. They told me they were watching me on television. It was an emotional moment for me.”