CHENNAI: Weightlifter Valluri Srinivasa Rao had won national championship multiple times and bagged a bronze medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi. More importantly, the village he hails from — Kondavelagada in Vizianagaram district — has produced around 20 international and around 40 national weightlifters so far with Rao being the pioneer. It's a staggering figure as the population of the village is around 3,000. So it's natural for his children to follow his footsteps and pursue the sport the father excelled at for years.
Rao, however, had a different plan even as he was coaching numerous aspirants in his village and at his work place — Indian Army. "Pullela Gopichand is a very good friend of mine and he wanted my elder son, Valluri Ajaya Babu, to pursue badminton. 'Send him to my Hyderabad academy', he had told me. But my wife was not interested as she believed her son was too young to be shifted to a faraway place like Hyderabad," Rao told this daily ahead of Ajaya's competition late on Monday night.
The decision meant Ajaya and his younger brother Akhil grew up in the village watching their father and others lifting weights day in and day out. Soon enough, both got hooked on weightlifting and decided to pursue it professionally. Eight years after Rao retired, Ajaya on Monday, bettered his father's show by winning a silver medal in the 79kg weight category at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Ajaya's best snatch lift was 149kg while in clean and jerk, he heaved 181kg taking his total to 330kg.
Malaysia's Erry Hidayat Muhammad won the gold with a total lift of 331kg (snatch 147 and clean & jerk 184). England's Chris Murray finished third with a total of 325kg (148+177).
"I missed the 2006 CWG because I couldn't qualify for it. Everything was on course for the next edition. It was scheduled in New Delhi and I was confident of bagging a gold but suffered a hamstring injury a month before the Games. That hampered my performance as I ended up with a bronze medal in the 56kg. I desperately want Ajay to win the gold for me."
Ajaya might have fallen short by just one kilogram but Rao wouldn't mind it.
The competition was stiff with Malaysian Erry, who won silver in 73kg in the 2022 edition, Canadian Shad Darsigny and Murray of England in the field. Incidentally, the Malaysian lifter was also chasing glory like Ajaya. His father Hidayat Hamidon won the gold at the 1998 CWG in Kuala Lumpur and Erry wanted to repeat the feat.
Ajaya started the snatch section with a 145kg lift, setting the Games record. His closest rival, Erry, however, couldn't complete the 147kg lift in his first two attempts and just managed to do that in the final attempt to stay in medal contention. Ajaya meanwhile, improved his show to 149kg to rewrite the Games record in his final attempt. Surprisingly, Murray finished second behind Ajaya after the snatch section with his best lift of 148kg. Erry was third while Darsigny was fourth.
But it all changed in the clean and jerk section as the Malaysian lifter took the lead in the first attempt by lifting 177kg even as Ajaya heaved 174kg. Erry then lifted 181kg while Ajaya completed the lift of 178kg. The Indian then heaved 181kg in his final attempt but Erry successfully lifted 184kg to go past Ajaya by the slightest of margins.
