Commonwealth Games: Weightlifters continue to lead India’s charge

Gold Coast: Indian weightlifters claimed two more medals on the second day of the Commonwealth Games here on Friday.

Sanjita Chanu took the women’s 53kg category gold, breaking the snatch record in the process while 18-year-old Deepak Lather became the youngest Indian weightlifter to claim a CWG medal, a bronze in the men’s 69kg category.

The Haryana lad was catapulted to third when his nearest opponent fouled his last two clean and jerk attempts.

Chanu claimed her second successive CWG gold despite nursing a back problem.

The diminutive athlete from Manipur lifted a total of 192kg (84kg+108kg) to claim gold ahead of Papua New Guinea’s Loa Dika Toua, who settled for silver with 182kg (80kg+102kg). Canada’s Rachel-LeBlanc-Bazinet (81kg+100kg) bagged bronze.

Lather lifted a total of 295kg (136kg+159kg), three kilogrammes more than Vaipava Ioane of Samoa, his nearest opponent who couldn’t pull off his final lift.

Chanu broke down in tears when she was presented her medal, while Lather grinned in mild disbelief at what had happened.

Gold medallist Gareth Evans (centre) of Wales, Sri Lanka’s Mudiyanselage Dissanayake and bronze medallist Deepak Lather pose on the podium after the 69kg bout on Friday. (Photo: AP)

“I was just sitting inside and hoping the Samoan would fail in his attempt. I know it’s bad to wish ill for someone but I couldn’t help it,” Lather said, breaking into laughter after the medal ceremony.

“I was just hoping he would drop the bar, luckily he did,” he added.

Lather, competing in his maiden CWG, is also the youngest to hold the national record. He held the 62kg category national record at the age of 15.

Trained at the Army Sports Institute as a diver before being motivated to take up weightlifting by his coaches, Lather said, “they told me diving is not for people with rigid bodies of Haryana. They are meant for tough stuff like wrestling, weightlifting.”

Chanu said it was important to prove her detractors wrong despite not being 100 per cent fit.

“A lot of people said that probably I wasn’t good enough for a medal. A back injury that I picked up at the World Champ-ionships last year is still not fully healed. I am probably at 90 per cent fitness right now,” she said.

Sanjita won a 48kg category gold medal at the 2014 Glasgow CWG.

On Thursday, Mirabai Chanu (48kg) won a gold medal in the women’s competition and P. Gururaja claimed silver in the men’s 56kg category, taking the total number of medals won by weightlifters to four so far.