2022 Commonwealth Games, Day 2, India News Round-up: Gold for Mirabai Chanu, Injured Sanket Sargar Wins Silver

Weightlifter while Mirabai Chanu added a golden aura to the proceedings for India on Day 2 of the CWG in Birmingham on Saturday, July 30. The day belonged to weightlifters with Sanket Sargar, despite an injury, securing India’s first medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, a sliver in the 55kg division. Gururaja Poojary then won bronze in the men's 61kg.

Earlier, the Indian mixed badminton team beat Sri Lanka and booked their quarterfinals spot with a match to go in their preliminary group.   

Here is a round-up of India’s results at the Commonwealth Games on July 30.

Injured Sargar Wins Silver

Sanket Sargar won India its first medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, winning silver in the 55kg weightlifting event in Birmingham on July 30. Sargar recorded a total lift of 248kg (113 in snatch and 135 in clean and jerk) to finish second behind Mohamad Aniq bin Kasdan of Malaysia.

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Sanket, who was en route the top prize, injured himself in the second clean and jerk attempt. Bin Kasdan climbed to the top spot thereafter after lifting 142kg (a CWG record in clean and jerk) in his final attempt. He recorded a total of 249kg. 

Sargar, who is taking part in his first multi-discipline Games, received his medal with his injured arm in a sling. The lifter from Maharashtra was able to attempt only once in the clean and jerk section. Subsequently he failed to lift 139kg in his second and third attempts.

"I heard a snap-like sound during the second attempt in the clean and jerk and dropped the weights,” said Sanket after his competition. “After that my coach had a look at my arm, there was a lot of pain but I had to make the third attempt. I tried to secure the gold, but I could not do it"

"I am very disappointed and angry as I lost the gold medal. I had prepared and worked so hard for the gold medal but unfortunately, this injury prevented me from claiming gold,” he added.

Chanu Breaks CWG Record

Mirabai Chanu clinched India’s first gold medal in Birmingham, winning the women's 49kg weightlifting final. Chanu, a pre-Games favourite, lifted 201kg (88kg in snatch and 113kg in clean and jerk) and set a new CWG record. 

Chanu was a class apart, evident in the fact that the difference between her total and that of the silver medalist was a whopping 29kg. In the first attempt in snatch, Chanu lifted 84kg, taking an 8kg lead over the second best. In her next attempt, Chanu lifted 88kg with ease, her personal best and a new CWG record. She decided to then go for 90kg but was unable to pull it off. 

That failed attempt did not waver her performance. In her first attempt of clean and jerk, Chanu lifted 109kg, confirming a new record and India's first gold of this edition of the CWG. In her second attempt, she lifted 113 kg to further increase the record. Chanu attempted 115 kg in her final attempt, and although she failed, that did not take anything away from her golden performance.

Poojary Secures Bronze

Gururaja Poojary won bronze in the men's 61kg weightlifting event. He successfully lifted a combined total of 269kg (118kg in snatch and 151kg in clean and jerk). 

Poojary, who won a silver medal at the Gold Coast Games in 2018, began with a snatch of 115kg and took the lead. With Youri Simard of Canada and Morea Baru of Papua New Guinea chasing, Poojary made a 118kg lift in the second attempt but fumbled in the third lift (120 kg). After the snatch, he was placed fourth with Aznil Bidin in the lead, followed by Baru and Simard.

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Poojary made up for it with his performance in clean and jerk. He lifted 144kg in his first attempt. Simard bettered Poojary's effort and went ahead by 2kgs. The Canadian then lifted 149 in his final attempt which meant that Poojary had to successfully lift 151 to secure a medal. He needed to pull off a repeat of his personal best to be in contention for the bronze medal and did exactly that. 

Hussamuddin in pre-quarters

Mohammad Hussamuddin cruised into the pre-quarterfinals of the men's featherweight (57kg) category at the boxing arena. A bronze medallist in the last CWG in 2018, he defeated young Amzolele Dyeyi of South Africa 5-0.

Hassamuddin’s firstwork and ring movements were just too quick for his South African opponent and easily scored a unanimous verdict. He will face Md. Salim Hossain of Bangladesh in the next round.

Women’s TT Team Outclass Guyana

The Indian women's table tennis team outclassed Guyana 3-0 in their third Group 2 match on Saturday. The women's team, led by Manika Batra are defending the gold it won at Gold Coast four years ago. They have had lower-ranked opponents in the group matches so far, and crushied South Africa and Fiji 3-0 on Friday.

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Against Guyana, Sreeja Akula and Reeth Tennison began the proceedings with a breezy 11-5 11-7 11-7 win over Natalie Cummings and Chealsea Edghill to put India 1-0 ahead. Batra, who became the first Indian table tennis player to win the gold in the women's singles in the last edition, decimated Thuraia Thomas in straight games 11-1, 11-3, 11-3. In the second singles match, Tennison registered a 11-7, 14-12, 13-11 win against Edghill.

Badminton Team in Quarters

Indian shuttlers had an easy victory over a hapless Sri Lanka in their second Group A match of the mixed team competition. After blanking Pakistan 5-0 on Friday, India notched up another convincing win to go to the top of Group A and qualify for the quarterfinals with still a match to go.

Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy got past Sachin Dias and Thilini Hendahewa 21-14, 21-9 to put India 1-0 ahead. The duo looked a little rusty but had enough quality in them to ease past their opponents. Lakshya Sen, who is playing his first match after recovering from a shoulder injury, then beat  veteran Niluka Karunatne 21-18, 21-5.

Akarshi Kashyap, who had made it to the team after topping the selection trials in April, went past Suhasni Vidanage 21-3, 21-9 to hand India an unassailable 3-0 lead. The Indian team will face Australia in the final league stage match later in the day.

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