CHENNAI: With two former champions of the Commonwealth Games in fray, task was cut out for Indian weightlifter Lovepreet Singh as the competition began in the men's +110 weight category at the Scottish Event Campus Armadillo, Glasgow on Thursday. Besides, he was the last lifter from the country in the weightlifting competition across weight categories as India had fielded only 11 athletes out of available 16 weight categories due to quota reduction because of anti-doping violations.
At the 2022 Birmingham CWG, Indian lifters had won 10 medals including three gold, as many silver and four bronze. The tally in Glasgow was nowhere near to what they had achieved four years ago. More importantly, they had managed only one gold, which expectedly came through former Olympic medallist and world champion Mirabai Chanu. The onus was on Lovepreet to add yet another yellow metal to India's tally and he did his best until his rival from New Zealand pipped him by just one kilogram to walk away with gold.
Lovepreet, whose father Kirpal Singh is a tailor and grandfather a vegetable vendor, had bagged a bronze medal in the 109kg weight category in the 2022 edition. With all eyes firmly on him, the 28-year-old lifter from Punjab started his campaign confidently by lifting 168kg in his first snatch attempt.
David Andrew Liti from New Zealand, a two-time CWG medallist (silver in 2022 and gold in 2018), was his closest competitor lifting 156kg and 166kg in the first two attempts. Andrew Griffiths from England was also in a touching distance as he heaved 160kg and 165kg in his first two attempts. The Indian, however, surpassed both of them by lifting 173kg in his next attempt and registering his personal best in the snatch section by lifting 176kg. The lift was also the Games record. Liti tried 176kg but failed while Griffiths also couldn't complete his last attempt of 170kg.
Even as the two main competitors were left behind, Sanele Mao of Samoa, a 2018 CWG champion in 105kg weight category, was still in the race and had registered 175kg as his entry weight. Unfortunately, the 41-year-old lifter couldn't complete a single snatch lift to get eliminated from the contest.
In the clean and jerk section, Lovepreet started with 205kg and took it to 212kg in the next attempt. He tried 217kg in his last attempt but couldn't complete the lift. Liti, meanwhile, lifted 207kg but was still 15kg short of Lovepreet's total. In his next attempt, he added 16kg to his previous weight and successfully heaved it to set a Games record and go past Lovepreet and claim a gold medal. With the contest already over, Liti didn't bother to take his last attempt. Griffiths, meanwhile, finished third with a total lift of 356kg (165kg and 191kg).
The difference of one kilogram meant Lovepreet had to settle with a silver medal and Indian lifters ended their campaign with a solitary gold, six silver and one bronze. Interestingly, all the four male lifters pocketed a silver each in their respective weight categories.
The New Zealander's decision to increase the weight by 16kg also took India head coach Vijay Sharma by surprise. "Who expects such a massive hike," he told this daily from Glasgow soon after the medal ceremony. "His snatch attempts were not convincing and even the first clean and jerk attempt of 207kg was not that clean. So we were a bit doubtful when he increased the weight by 16kg but he not only lifted it but also proved all of us wrong," added the coach.
Sharma also expressed satisfaction over Indian lifters show in the event. "Winning eight medals by fielding 11 lifters is a good show. We missed a medal today as Martina should have finished on the podium. Besides, in a couple of categories we missed the gold otherwise the tally would have looked better," he signed off.
