Glasgow: Weightlifter Gyaneshwari Yadav spearheaded India’s campaign with a silver medal in the women’s 53kg event, while Bindyarani Devi added a bronze, as the country’s track and field athletes and boxers advanced to the finals and quarterfinals respectively at the Commonwealth Games here on Monday.
The 23-year-old Gyaneshwari produced the performance of her career, totalling 199kg (88kg snatch + 111kg clean and jerk) to claim silver after a thrilling duel with Nigeria’s Onome Omolola Didih, who shattered both the Commonwealth and Commonwealth Games records with a winning effort of 206kg (93kg + 113kg).
Gyaneshwari equalled her personal best in the snatch and set new personal bests in the clean and jerk and total. The contest turned into a spectacular exchange of record-breaking lifts in the clean and jerk, with the Indian briefly holding the Commonwealth Games record at 111kg before Didih reclaimed it with a decisive lift of 113kg to seal gold.
Later, Bindyarani made a gritty fight but two unsuccessful clean and jerk attempts restricted her to bronze as Nigeria’s Rafiatu Folashade Lawal powered to a record-breaking gold in the women’s 58kg weightlifting event.
Bindyarani, who had won silver in the 55kg category at the 2022 Birmingham Games, finished with a total lift of 199kg (87kg snatch + 112kg clean and jerk) to secure the third spot.
Earlier, Gyaneshwari’s silver, India’s fourth medal in weightlifting and fifth overall at the Games, capped an inspiring journey for the lifter, whose father, an electrician, supported her sporting ambitions despite financial hardship.
A former powerlifter, she credited Olympic silver medallist Mirabai Chanu as her inspiration and said achieving personal bests was her primary goal in Glasgow.
In athletics, M Sreeshankar comfortably booked his place in the men’s long jump final after clearing the automatic qualification standard of 8m with an effortless opening leap of 8.01m in Group A.
The 27-year-old, returning from a career-threatening patellar tendon injury that ruled him out of the Paris Olympics, was the only athlete from his group to achieve direct qualification.
Compatriot Lokesh Sathyanathan also progressed after a best effort of 7.77m earned him a place among the top-12 performers across both groups.
Sreeshankar, the 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, said the cold, windy and rainy conditions made qualification tricky but was pleased to secure his place in the final with his first attempt.
“Qualification went quite well, it was tricky conditions for everyone. It was cold and windy and it was raining also in between but I qualified in the first attempt, so very excited for the final,” Sreeshankar told PTI.
Indian boxing also enjoyed a productive day as former world youth champion Sachin Siwach and youngster Ankush entered the quarterfinals of the men’s 60kg and 80kg events respectively, moving within one victory of assured medals.
Sachin defeated England’s William Hewitt 4-1 with a composed display despite suffering a point deduction in the final round. He will next face Botswana’s Treasure Moremi for a place in the semifinals.
Ankush, making his Commonwealth Games debut, produced a dominant performance to outclass Antigua and Barbuda’s Jan Zalaan 5-0 by unanimous decision and also advanced to the last-eight stage.
There was disappointment, however, in the men’s 100m, where national record holder Gurindervir Singh failed to progress beyond the heats.
The 25-year-old clocked 10.39 seconds to finish second in his heat behind Jamaica’s Rohan Watson but ended up only 28th overall, well outside the qualification places.
Gurindervir had arrived in Glasgow on the back of a national record of 10.09 seconds set earlier this year and was hoping to become the first Indian to break the 10-second barrier.
In swimming, two-time Olympian Sajan Prakash qualified for the men’s 200m butterfly final after finishing as the sixth fastest overall in the heats.
The Indian clocked 1:58.59sec to finish second in Heat 2 behind Scotland’s Duncan Scott (1:58.29), earning a place in the eight-man final slated later tonight.
Also making the finals in swimming were Aryan Nehra (men’s 800m freestyle) and para swimmer Swatik Patel (men’s 100m backstroke SB9).
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
