The Indian weightlifters bagged more medals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham than in the 2018 edition, but slipped on the count of gold.
Four years ago, India had won nine medals, including five gold, in Gold Coast. In Birmingham, it bagged 10 medals, including three gold, to retain its No. 1 position. In 2014, India finished second behind Nigeria despite winning the maximum number (14) of medals, including three gold. Nigeria’s tally of six gold included four from powerlifting, which was part of the Glasgow Games. India had a silver and a bronze in powerlifting.
India has been sitting at the top of the weightlifting medals tally for the last three editions of the Games. This time, the overall performance was on expected lines, with the men contributing seven medals.
The women lifters returned only one gold this time — Olympic silver medallist Mirabai Chanu won gold in the 49kg category (she had a silver in 2014 and a gold in 2018). Bindyarani Devi (55kg) won a silver medal and Harjinder Kaur (71kg) won a surprise bronze medal.
Mirabai’s victory was a foregone conclusion. Even though she could not achieve her target of touching the 90kg mark in snatch, it was heartening to see the ace lifter equalling her personal best of 88kg and getting a total (201kg), close to her Olympic mark of 202kg. It will put her preparations for the World Championships on the right track. “The women lifters performed as per my expectations. Everybody improved their performance. We did not have many gold medal contenders this time,” chief national coach Vijay Sharma told Sportstar.
The biggest disappointment in the women’s section was seasoned lifter Punam Yadav’s failure to win a medal. Punam was eyeing a third consecutive Games medal in the 76kg category. According to sources, Punam had knee issues during the Khelo India Ranking event in Himachal Pradesh in June. She left for Birmingham on July 26 while the rest of the squad had left a month earlier. Even though the top brass of the Indian Weightlifting Federation reportedly blamed the lifter’s injury for her failure, Sharma said, “We had no option as the qualification was by name.”
Healthy competition
Jeremy Lalrinnunga (67kg) and Achinta Sheuli (73kg) winning gold medals — with totals of 300kg and 313kg, respectively — were the high points for India in the men’s section. Their tallies were below their personal bests (Jeremy 306kg, and Achinta 316kg), but gave India two important medals. The two friends will now clash in 73kg in their attempt to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“Both will stay at 73kg until the Olympic qualifiers. When athletes push each other, you have a healthy competition,” said Sharma.
Sanket Sargar, who landed a silver in 55kg, missed out on a gold due to an injury he picked up during the competition. It was a shock that Commonwealth Championship gold medallist Ajay Singh — a medal contender — narrowly missed out on a podium finish in the 81kg class.
Vikas Thakur (96kg), who picked up a silver after getting podium finishes in 2014 (silver, 85kg) and 2018 (bronze, 94kg), was a little lucky to get his third successive medal with a total of 346kg as two podium contenders — England’s Cyrille Tchatchet and Cyprus’ Antonis Martasdis, with 150-plus efforts in snatch — blacked out in clean and jerk. The lifters acknowledged that training in Birmingham for about a month prior to the Games helped them.
It enabled them not only to get acclimatised to the conditions and be familiar with a new time zone, but also to improve their fitness levels. Jeremy, who always has difficulties increasing his body weight, was able to put on weight in favourable conditions.
Shell shocked: Punam Yadav reacts during the 76kg final. Her failure to win her third successive medal at the Commonwealth Games was a big disappointment. Injury may have likely contributed to the debacle. | Photo Credit: REUTERS
Sharma is in favour of such trips prior to a major event. “When the time zone is vastly different, the body takes about a week to get used to the changes. It is always beneficial to go in advance to such places.”
Lower standard
Even as the whole country celebrates the massive success of the weightlifters, one needs to put things in perspective. There is no doubt that the overall standard of competition in the Commonwealth Games is lower than at the Asian Games, the World Championships and the Olympics.
This explains why our lifters, who come out with flying colours at the Commonwealth Games, have not been able to earn podium finishes in bigger events on a regular basis. For example, the men’s 73kg medallists — China’s Zhiyong Shi, Venezuela’s Julio Pernia and Indonesia’s Rahmat Abdullah –— recorded totals of 364kg, 346kg and 342kg, respectively, at the Tokyo Olympics.
Achinta, the best Indian lifter in 73kg, has a National record of 316kg.
Sharma is aware of the gulf between the standards at the Commonwealth Games and some of the other competitions. “The Asian level is as good as the world level and we are not close to that.”
He has a word of advice for the lifters who did well in Birmingham. “There is no point in being complacent. In Gold Coast, R. V. Rahul gave such a fine performance (338kg) to win the men’s 85kg gold medal. Where is he now?”
Sharma feels a few lifters other than Mirabai should be able to make the cut for the 2024 Olympics. “One from Jeremy and Achinta can qualify in 73kg. Bindyarani is another lifter who can improve her performance and earn qualification. In the super heavyweight, Gurdeep can better his showing to claim a berth.”
Sharma said the only way for overall improvement is to find new talents and groom them for bigger events. “We have to look beyond the old hands and find new talented lifters who can be groomed for the 2028 Games.”
Realising this, the Indian Weightlifting Federation has roped in Aveenash Pandoo as the high performance director and has assigned him the task of talent spotting and grooming. “I was not able to give attention to the up-and-coming talents in the country as my primary focus was on training the elite athletes. That’s why we have brought in Pandoo. His work area is clearly specified in his contract and he will look after the younger lifters,” said Sharma.
Hopefully, the initiative will produce some quality lifters for the country in the coming years.
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