Lifter Gururaja Poojary pockets 61kg bronze

The lifter also informed that he was down with a fever after reaching the venue a month ahead of the CWG and could not give his best at the training.
Weightlifter Gururaja Poojary at the Commonwealth Games. (Photo | Twitter)
Weightlifter Gururaja Poojary at the Commonwealth Games. (Photo | Twitter)

CHENNAI: Gold in any Games is always going to be difficult. Even for weightlifter Gururaja P given the competition in the 61kg weight category. The Karnataka lifter, however, wanted to change the medal colour from silver at the Gold Coast CWG four years ago in 56kg to something more shining. But as was expected the Malaysian lifter Muhamad Aznil Bin Bidin proved too tough. Given his modest show in the snatch section, as he was lying fourth, the 30-year-old Gururaja missed out on a silver medal and settled for bronze with a total lift of 269kg (118kg in snatch and 151kg in clean and jerk).

The Malaysian lifter grabbed the gold medal with a Games record lift of 285kg (127+158). Morea Baru of Papua New Guinea bagged the silver with a total lift of 273kg (121+152).While his silver in the last edition opened India's account, the bronze on Saturday added to India's tally after Sanket Sargar pocketed 55kg silver.

At one point in time, Canada's lifter Youri Simard was giving Gururaj a tough competition. Despite lifting his personal best of 148kg in his second attempt during the clean and jerk section, Gururaja was made to increase the weight in his third attempt to surge ahead of his Canadian rival. And he did it without much fuss as he lifted 151kg in his final attempt to seal the bronze.

He credited the national coach for motivating him and going past the Canadian rival in the clean and jerk. "He egged me on and told me to 'give my best, otherwise all my sacrifice of leaving home and staying alone would go in vain'. It really motivated me and I went for the bronze," he said post the medal ceremony.

Gururaja had told this daily ahead of the event that he was forced to stay away from his family in his quest for a second consecutive medal at the quadrennial event. He had said that he left home just a month after getting married in May last year. He joined the Air Force camp in June to prepare for the nationals and then shifted to the national camp to prepare for the event.

The lifter also informed that he was down with a fever after reaching the venue a month ahead of the CWG and could not give his best at the training.However, he still believes the performance was satisfactory given the issues he has to counter "I'm very happy with my performance. I could not train properly and had a fever, knee and wrist pain. Looking at the way, it was a very good effort," he signed off.

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