Punam’s gold gives India best medal haul in lifting
GOLDCOAST:PUNAM Yadav bagged gold in the women’s 69kg, overcoming a challenge from England’s Sarah Davies with a personal best lift.
It helped India win their fifth weightlifting gold that made them the most successful nation in the sport so far in this edition of the Games.
The gold won by Punam along with the silver by Gururaja and bronze medal by Vikas Thakur made it a rich haul of seven medals from 10 events in lifting.
This is India’s best performance in weightlifting in terms of gold won since the sport has stopped offering separate medals for each section — snatch, clean and jerk and total).
India had won three gold medals each in Glasgow and Melbourne and two in New Delhi.
Punam started by lifting 95kg in snatch and then 98 and 100kg, which put her in lead with Apolona Vaivai of Fiji.
However, in the clean and jerk, she missed 122 on her second turn and finally managed to lift it cleanly in the third. Davies too lifted 122 in her second turn and went for 128kg in her last as she had lifted 5kg less compared to Punam in snatch. She failed in her attempt thus leaving the Indian lifter at the top position.
Vaivai, who has moved down from 75kg in which she won bronze in Glasgow, had a combined total of 227 in the Commonwealth Championships in Gold Coast last year but seemed out of sorts as she could not put up her best show.
She failed to lift 103 in snatch and 122 in clean and jerk and had to be satisfied with bronze.
“I had expected a tougher fight from the Fijian but the English girl surprised me. I did not expect her to do so well as she had finished fifth in Glasgow,” said Punam after the win.
The 22-year-old from Varanasi, who works for Indian Railways, said she was struggling with a knee injury but was happy to have the physio come in and help her.
“He was not allowed in the Village but he was here and treated my knee. I was confident of winning gold,” she said.
Punam said she wants to improve further and win medals in Asian Games and the World Championships.
“Of course the Olympics is very athletes’ ultimate aim and I too want to win a medal in the Olympics. I just want to work hard and improve my standard, the medals will come” she
signed off.
IN WEIGHTLIFTING, INDIA WON THREE GOLD EACH IN GLASGOW AND MELBOURNE AND TWO IN NEW DELHI.