Mirabai Chanu creates Games record, gets first gold for India at CWG 2022

07/30/2022

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India's Mirabai Chanu created history as she won a gold in the women's 49kg weightlifting competition at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, on Saturday. She lifted a combined weight of 201 kg to take the top prize, after Sanket and Gururaja won their respective medals, earlier in the day.

En route to the gold medal, Chanu also created a Games record. This is her second gold at the Games after she won the top prize in the 2018 Gold Coast Games. She faced no competition at all from other participants, as the silver medal winner Marie of Mauritius, was over 30kg below Chanu.

At the start of the competition, Chanu lifted 88kg in the snatch category. She tried to lift 90kg too, but failed in her third attempt. Come the clean and jerk, where she holds the world record too, she only lifted 113kg, six kg short of her record.

At third came Canada's Hannah Kaminski, with a combined weight of 171kg. This medal also happens to be India's first gold in the CWG 2022. Prior to this, India had won a silver and bronze, coming in weightlifting only.

Sanket Sagare had won silver in men's 55kg, while Gururaja had won bronze in men's 61 kg.