CWG 2018 | Sanjita Chanu Khumukcham clinches second gold for India

All three medals for India at the Games so far have come through weightlifting only. The floodgates were opened by P Gururaja on Day 1, when he won the silver medal in the 56kg category. Sanjita continued the trend in the 53 kg category as she effortlessly lifted 81 kg in the first attempt.

No one in the category tried that weight in their first attempt with Papua New Guinea’s Loa Dika Toua and Canada’s Rachel Leblanc-Bazinet coming close with a 78 kg lift. However, by the time they came to their third attempt, where they had declared 82kg and 83kg respectively, they were spent and failed to lift them.

Sanjita, as effortless as Mirabai Chanu was yesterday, started with 81kg and went on to 83kg and 84kg with no struggle whatsoever. She ended up leading the snatch category with a Commonwealth record of 84kg lift. 

However, it was in the clean and jerk category that the Indian faced the real competition from Toua, who holds the Games record for clean and jerk (111) and combined (193) as well. And after Sanjita lifted 104 kg and 108 kg in the first two attempts, Toua needed to lift a massive 113 kg to keep her Indian counterpart out of the gold contention. 

However, she failed to lift it after Sanjita dropped her 112 kg attempt. The Indian eventually ended the clean and jerk category with 108 kg, lifting 192 kg in total as Toua’s combined and clean and jerk record remained intact.