Three months before Sun City, Keyaa Kunal Banerji was just another name on a Haryana gym’s whiteboard. By the time she walked off the platform at the 2026 IPF World Sub-Junior & Junior Classic Powerlifting Championships, she’d pulled a 140 kg deadlift at a bodyweight of barely 45.70 kg, nearly three times her own weight, and turned that name into a silver medal.
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Keyaa Kunal Banerji Quick Facts
How tall is Keyaa Kunal Banerji?
No official height is published. One profile site lists 5 ft 5 in, but this is unconfirmed. She competes at a bodyweight of about 45.70 kg in the Junior Women 47 kg category.
How old is Keyaa Kunal Banerji (Keyaa Banerjee)?
She is 21 years old in 2026, with profile sites listing a birth date of February 16, 2005. The name is also spelled Keyaa Banerji and Keyaa Banerjee.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Keyaa Kunal Banerji |
| Age | 21 (as of September 2026) |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Trains In | Haryana, India |
| Sport | Powerlifting |
| Weight Category | Junior Women’s 47 kg |
| Bodyweight | 45.70 kg |
| Best Deadlift | 140 kg |
| Best Squat | 90 kg |
| Best Bench Press | 50 kg |
| Career-Best Total | 280 kg |
| Signature Achievement | Silver medal, deadlift, 2026 IPF World Sub-Junior & Junior Classic Powerlifting Championships |
Keyaa Kunal Banerji Age and Date of Birth
Keyaa Kunal Banerji is 21 years old in 2026. Profile sites list her date of birth as February 16, 2005, but neither the IPF nor Powerlifting India has published it, so treat the exact date as unconfirmed. Her name is also spelled Keyaa Banerji and Keyaa Banerjee in news coverage.
Keyaa Kunal Banerji Height
No official height has been published for Keyaa Kunal Banerji. One profile site lists her at 5 ft 5 in, but its metric conversion does not match, so we treat it as unconfirmed. What is confirmed is her bodyweight of 45.70 kg at the 2026 World Championships, where she competed in the Junior Women 47 kg category.
Who Is Keyaa Kunal Banerji?
Keyaa Kunal Banerji competes in the Junior Women’s 47 kg category, and if you’re only now hearing her name, that’s about to change. She’s spent the past couple of seasons quietly turning herself from a solid state-level lifter into someone the rest of the world has to account for. Nothing about that climb was instant — it happened one training block at a time in Haryana, away from the cameras that eventually found her in South Africa.
Career Highlights
At the 2026 IPF World Sub-Junior & Junior Classic Powerlifting Championships in Sun City, Banerji stepped onto the platform at just 45.70 kg and produced the lift of her career: a 140 kg deadlift, good enough for individual silver in the discipline. France’s Ines Herbaux took gold with 165 kg; Ireland’s Blathnaid O’Dwyer matched Banerji’s 140 kg but finished third on countback. Add a 90 kg squat and a 50 kg bench press, and her 280 kg total placed her fifth overall among the world’s best juniors.
The deadlift itself tells its own story. At the national championships just three months earlier, she’d already banked 140 kg and narrowly missed 147.5 kg on a third attempt — a near-miss that, in hindsight, looks like a preview. Go back another twelve months and her best pull sat at 127.5 kg. A 12.5 kg jump in a single year is the kind of progress that gets a young lifter noticed by national selectors, and it clearly did.
Training and Life Outside the Platform
Powerlifting in India rarely comes with the infrastructure that sprint or cricket programs enjoy, which makes Banerji’s rise more notable, not less. Her Haryana base has become something of a proving ground for lifters chasing international standards on a fraction of the budget larger federations work with. Governing bodies like the International Powerlifting Federation now track her results alongside the sport’s established names, and for a 21-year-old two seasons removed from obscurity, that alone is worth pausing on.
Fans who followed Shreyanka Patil’s rise through Indian cricket will recognise the shape of this story: a young athlete from outside the traditional metros, building a career through repetition rather than hype, until the results make the hype impossible to ignore.
Fun Facts About Keyaa Kunal Banerji
- Her 140 kg deadlift at a bodyweight of 45.70 kg means she lifted nearly three times her own bodyweight.
- She trains and competes out of Haryana, one of India’s emerging powerlifting hubs.
- Her silver medal came at her first Junior World Championships appearance.
- Her deadlift improved by more than 12 kg in a single year, from 127.5 kg to 140 kg.
- She finished fifth overall in the Junior Women’s 47 kg category despite winning an individual event medal.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did Keyaa Kunal Banerji deadlift at the 2026 World Championships?
She deadlifted 140 kg at a bodyweight of 45.70 kg, winning individual silver in the discipline at the 2026 IPF World Sub-Junior & Junior Classic Powerlifting Championships in Sun City, South Africa.
What was Keyaa Kunal Banerji’s overall ranking at Worlds?
She finished fifth overall in the Junior Women’s 47 kg category with a 280 kg total (90 kg squat, 50 kg bench press, 140 kg deadlift), while taking silver specifically in the deadlift event.
How much has Keyaa Kunal Banerji’s deadlift improved?
Her deadlift rose from 127.5 kg a year before Worlds to 140 kg at the championships themselves, a 12.5 kg gain in twelve months.
Where does Keyaa Kunal Banerji train?
She trains in Haryana, India, one of the country’s emerging centres for competitive powerlifting.