Birmingham (TIP)- India ended its campaign in the weightlifting competitions in the 2022 Commonwealth Games with super heavyweight lifter Gurdeep Singh bagging a bronze medal in Men’s 109+ kg final.

Gurdeep’s medal took India’s total medal count from weightlifting to 10 — three gold, three silver and four bronze — marginally better than that at Gold Coast in 2018 when India had won only nine medals. Though India won an extra medal at Birmingham, what would rankle the Indian Weightlifting officials and supporters is that India could win only three goal medals from Birmingham as compared to five at Gold Coast.

With shooting out of the equation as it was not included in the programme, India had lost a major source of medals in Birmingham and weightlifting was among the sports expected to fill the gap with a good haul.

In the end, it was an up and down performance. Top stars Mirabai Chanu, Jeremy Lalrinnunga and Achinta Sheuli won the three gold medals for India, while Sanket Mahadev Sargar, Bindyarani Devi Sorokhaibam and Vikas Thakur got the silver medals and Lovepreet Singh, Gururaja, Harjinder Kaur and Gurdeep Singh won the bronze medal for India. On Wednesday, Gurdeep won bronze in the Men’s 109+ kg but his performance was not assured. He had only one legal lift in snatch on which he lifted 167kg. In clean and jerk, he started with 207kg, missed on 215 but then raised to 223 and lifted it, thus finishing with 390 kg. Pakistan’s Muhammad Nooh Dastgir  Butt won the gold medal with a total lift of 405 kg — 173 in snatch while 232kg in clean and jerk.

On paper, it may look like a good performance as India won more medals than 20018, is disappointing in terms of total gold count. Though Mirabai and Jeremy looked as assured as ever in winning the gold medal performance, Achinta Sheuli too was a bit wobbly while winning. “The weightlifters’ performance at Birmingham proves that they still have a bit to do before the tougher events like the Asian Games, World Championships and the Paris Olympics in 2022,” she said.

Triple treat for boxers

Nitu Ghanghas showed her ferocity to demolish Northern Ireland’s Nicole Clyde in the women’s 48kg category and assure India its first boxing medal at the Commonwealth Games.

Soon after that, Mohammad Hussamuddin defeated Tryagain Morning Ndevelo of Namibia with a 4-1 split verdict to advance to the semifinals of the men’s 57kg category. With this win, he assured himself of a second consecutive CWG medal. The 28-year-old Hussamuddin had won bronze in Gold Coast four years ago. Hussamuddin had to work hard for the win  as it was a fiercely contested bout and could have gone either way.

Nitu, who hails from Dhanana district in Bhiwani, dominated the first two rounds against Clyde before the bout was abandoned. Nikhat Zareen, the reigning world champion, produced a dominating 5-0 win over Helen Jones of Wales in the 50kg category to enter the semifinals.

                Source: Agencies