Punam Yadav steals spotlight at Commonwealth weightlifting in Pune

India’s Punam Yadav stole the limelight in the ongoing 2015 Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Pune by bagging gold medals in the Senior and Junior women’s categories in the 63-kg division. Yadav lifted 90kgs in snatch and 110kgs in clean and jerk for a total of 200kgs to bag titlse in both Senior and Junior sections.

S Vishnukanth, Ragala Venkat Rahul and Vikas Thakur took top spots in their respective weight divisions in the men’s section, while G Lalitha had to settle for silver in the 63kg Youth girls section.

Vishnukanth took gold in the 85kg Youth boys section with an effort of 227kg (102+125), while Ragala Venkat bagged gold in the 85kg Junior men division with a lift of 327kg (146+181).However, the same effort earned Venkat a silver medal in the 85kg Senior men's category as Vikas Thakur bagged the top spot with a lift of 335kg (152+183).

Meanwhile, Lalitha lifted a combined 164kg (74+90) to finish second in her category. The gold went to Mabia Aktar of Bangladesh with an effort of 176kg (78+98).

India have fielded 40 lifters across the Youth, Junior and Senior categories. Lifters from the Commonwealth are vying to qualify for the World Championships to be held in the United States in November and next year’s Rio Olympics.!