Commonwealth Games: Weightlifters Mirabai Chanu, Bindyarani, Sanket and Gururaja earn first medals

Birmingham: Mirabai Chanu was ahead of the rest of the pack even before she had stepped up to the mat in the Women’s 49kg category of weightlifting on Saturday. She set a target of 80kg to start her snatch attempt - at least eight kilos clear of the rest. By the time she stepped up to make her first lift, the 2018 Games gold medallist had increased her aim to 84kg - no one had managed more than 72 kgs.

With a best of 88kg in snatch, in her second lift, she had shattered the Commonwealth Games record, the Games record and equalled her National record in snatch. If she came in an overwhelming favourite for the gold, the snatch made clear why. It also made clear India were headed towards their first gold medal in Birmingham.

Commonwealth Games: India schedule, Results, Medals tally

In the end, Chanu posted a Games record 113kg in the Clean & Jerk as well and had the job done with the first lift. Eventually, her total of 201kg also proved to be a Games Record.

The Tokyo Olympics silver medallist was expected to land the gold medal once again in CWG but the magnitude of win became the exciting part. The next best was Mauritius’ Marie Hanitra Roilya Ranaivosoa who registered 172kg (76kg+96kg) - a gigantic 29kg behind.

It was a day for the lifters as Sanket Sargar won India’s first medal of the Games by clinching silver medal in the Men’s 55kg category. And it could well have been gold for the 21-year-old as he finished just a kilo short of first-placed Mohamad Aniq of Malaysia. He managed a total lift of 248kg (113kg+135kg) to finish.

It was a dramatic moment with Sargar injuring his right elbow while trying to lift 139kg in his second clean and jerk attempt. It is a massive moment for the Sangli, Maharashtra native who was managing a ‘paan shop’ with his father.

Later, Gururaja Poojary, silver medallist in Gold Coast, finished third in Men’s 61kg while going neck-and-neck with Canada’s Youri Simard. It was a successful switch for the lifter to an Olympic weight category having competed in 56kg in 2018.

Gururaja was required to lift 151kg in his third and final clean & jerk attempt to fend off the challenge of Simard.

Late at night, Bindyarani Devi became the fourth Indian weightlifter to win a medal as the 23-year-old Manipuri lifter claimed a silver medal in the 55kg women’s category. She also set the Games record in clean and jerk segment by lifting 116kgs while lifting 202kg in total. She also matched Mirabai Chanu’s national record of 86kg in snatch.

Disappointment for female paddlers

India women’s team, the defending champions, outclassed Guyana 3-0 in the group stage contest but were found out in the quarter-finals. Facing Malaysia, Manika Batra looked shaky in both her singles matches - winning one and losing another.

National champion Sreeja Akula gave India a 2-1 lead but the Malaysian team roared back in dramatic fashion.

Batra was trounced by 19-year-old leftie Karen Lyne and with tie on the line, an inexperienced Reeth Tennison couldn’t keep her composure to lose the fifth game against Ying Ho.

The men progressed to the quarters by beating Northern Ireland 3-0.

Perfect start for Hussamuddin, Lovlina; Sanjeet crashes out

2018 bronze medallist Mohammad Hussamuddin progressed into the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s featherweight (57kg) after beating Amzolele Dyeyi of South Africa 5-0 in a unanimous verdict. However, the Indian boxing contingent also suffered their first defeat on the day as heavyweight category boxer Sanjeet Kumar suffered a defeat at the hands of Samoa’s Ato Plodzicki-Faoagali.

Progressing by a similar margin was Lovlina Borgohain. She had dominated the news in the past week by her plea to have her coach with her even if it came at the cost of the other support staff members. She had no trouble beating New Zealand’s Ariane Nicholson with all judges ruling in her favour.

Hassamuddin will face Md Salim Hossain of Bangladesh in the next round for a place in the quarterfinals. Borgohain has Rosie Eccles of Wales in the quarter-final.

Sanjeet, who missed the Tokyo Olympics after a surgery, lost by a split verdict to 2018 Gold Coast silver medallist Plodzicki-Faoagali. As per the final result, two judges favour 28-29 in favour of Sanjeet while two others favoured exactly the opposite in Samoan’s favour. The decision went down to the Sri Lankan judge, who favoured the bout in Plodzicki-Faoagali favour after earlier carding a score of 28 each.

Easy day for shuttlers

Already through to the quarterfinals, defending champions India continued their rampaging run as they beat Australia in their final group A match of mixed team competition at the Commonwealth Games here. The Indians have taken an unassailable 3-0 lead over the Australians, who then won the women’s doubles tie to restore some pride. India eventually took the match 4-1 after winning the mixed doubles tie.

After blanking Pakistan 5-0 on the first day, India yet again were by far the better team on display on the second day as they outclassed Sri Lanka 5-0 first and then beat Australia to top the group on way to the quarterfinals.

To justify the strength of the squad, India shuffled things around to face Sri Lanka with Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy teaming up.

Women’s Hockey team beats Wales 3-1

Vandana Katariya scored a brace as the Indian women’s hockey team defeated Wales 3-1 to record its second successive win in Pool A at the Commonwealth Games here.

India scored all their three goals from penalty corners with Vandana finding the net twice, while Gurjit Kaur fired in a fierce drag-flick on Saturday. India will next play hosts England on August 2.

Elsewhere across the Games, Nitendra Singh Rawat finished 12th in the men’s marathon race. The 35-year-old Rawat clocked 2 hour 19 minutes and 22 seconds in the race won by Uganda’s Victor Kiplangat (2:10:55).

In squash, Joshna Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal made their experience count in progressing in the singles competitions. But it was curtains for 14-year-old Anahat Singh, Sunayna Kuruvilla and Abhay Singh.

In swimming, Srihari Nataraj finished seventh in the 100m backstroke final with a timing of 54.31 seconds. South Africa’s Pieter Coetze took the gold with a timing of 53.78 seconds ahead of England’s Brodie Williams (53.91s) and Jamaica’s Sky Simone- Lea Norris (54.06s). Srihari’s timing was much slower than his personal best and national record of 53.77s.

In lawn ball, India’s Tania Choudhary suffered her third successive loss in women’s singles competition of lawn bowl event at the ongoing Commonwealth Games here on Saturday. The 26-year-old Choudhary had suffered twin losses on the opening day of the competition against Dee Hoggan and Daphne Arthur-Almond of the Falkland Islands.

With inputs from PTI

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