PTI
GLASGOW, July 28
A dominant Satish Sivalingam rewrote the Games Snatch record enroute to his gold medal winning performance while Ravi Katulu finished second behind him in the men’s 77kg weightlifting event at the Commonwealth Games on Sunday.
22-year-old Satish, the 2013 Commonwealth Championships gold medallist, lifted a total of 328kg (149+179) to pip 2010 CWG gold medallist Ravi, who had to be content with a silver medal following an effort of 317kg (142+175).
Australia’s Francois Etoundi bagged the bronze with a lift of 314kg (137+177) at the Clyde Auditorium here.
Satish’s 149kg lift in snatch lift erased the earlier record of 148kg in the name of Yuko Peter of Nauru while winning gold in 2010 Delhi.
India ran away with the day’s honours in weightlifting as Punam Yadav had won a bronze in women’s 63kg earlier in the day with a total lift of 202kg (88+114).
India have now bettered their 2010 CWG performance in weightlifting. India have won nine medals (3-2-4) in weightlifting, one more than the eight (2-2-4) in Delhi.
Both Ravi Kumar and Satish Kumar played a tactical game and began their snatch after most of the other competitors had made their three attempts by keeping the starting weight at 142kg.
Satish was the first of the two Indians to come out and he easily lifted 142kg but Ravi Kumar failed to do so at the same weight. Ravi, however, had a clean lift of 142kg in his second attempt.
England’s Jack Oliver then set the tempo of a keen contest as he lifted 142kg in his second attempt but failed to clear 145kg in his third.
Satish made another clean lift of 146kg before Ravi made an unsuccessful attempt to go ahead by trying 147kg.
With one lift left for him, Satish went for 149kg in his attempt to break the Commonwealth Games record and he did it yet again in style and punched the air in delight.
In clean and jerk also, Satish and Ravi followed the same script as they began their attempts by keeping the starting weight high.
This time though, Ravi came out ahead of Satish and he lifted 175kg straightaway to jump to the top before Etoundi was successful in his attempt of 177kg to place himself in second spot.
Satish came out and thought he lifted 178kg but the judges ruled that it was a no-lift. Not to be bogged down by the decision of the judges, Satish went for 179kg and he lifted it to regain the top spot and then thumped his chest.
Ravi went for 185kg in his second attempt but was unsuccessful and that ensured gold for Satish. He attempted 186kg in a bid to break the Games record in total lift but failed to do so.
Earlier, Punam clinched India’s seventh weightlifting medal after lifting a total of 202kg to claim a bronze in the women’s 63kg category.
Punam, who won a bronze in junior Asian Championship early this year, was locked in a gripping battle with Olayuwatoyin Adesanmi and defending champion Obioma Okoli, but the two Nigerian athletes totalled five kilos more than the Indian.
Both Adesanmi and Okoli totalled 207kg but the former was awarded gold as her body weight was one kilo less than the defending champion at 62kg.
Punam’s best lifts in Snatch came in third attempt while in Clean and Jerk her best effort was in second attempt. After starting with 85kg, Punam ended her Snatch attempts with a final lift of 88kg.
In the Clean and Jerk, the 19-year-old Punam began with 110kg, then improved it to 114kg in the second attempt but her last attempt of 117kg could not materialise.
Another Indian, Vandana Gupta, finished fourth in the same event as she ended with a total of 198kg. Her best lift in Snatch was 91kg in her third attempt and in Clean and Jerk she could manage only 107kh as her two later attempts of 110kg failed.
