Ahmedabad: Indian weightlifters flexed their muscles on Friday, the penultimate day of the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships 2025, winning seven medals and setting new records. Sairaj Pardeshi set the stage on fire by lifting 348kg in the junior men’s category in the 88kg weight class. His snatch lift of 157kg and clean and jerk of 191kg were both new records. The silver in this event was won by Hrudananda Das, whose snatch of 139kg and clean and jerk of 178kg helped him lift 317kg, ahead of Kenya’s Franklin Atete, who lifted 242kg for the bronze. In the youth boys’ category in the same weight class, India’s Hussain Shah lifted 267kg, which comprised a snatch of 115kg and a clean and jerk of 152kg, to bag the gold. Parv Chaudhary set three records on the way to lifting 337kg, comprising a snatch of 149kg and a clean and jerk of 188kg, to win the gold in the 94kg weight class in youth boys’ and junior men’s categories. In the senior men’s category in the same weight class, India’s Dilbag Singh was pipped by Mohammad Syahmi of Malaysia for gold by 1kg. While Dilbag was sitting with a lead of 3kg after completing a snatch of 153kg, the Malaysian lifted 193kg to Dilbag’s 189kg in the clean and jerk. India’s lone woman medallist of the day was Vanshita Verma, who won a bronze in the 86kg weight class in the senior women’s category. Chief national coach Vijay Sharma told TOI, “Our youth and junior weightlifters are performing very well. The effort to back them is bearing results. Earlier, we used to concentrate only on seniors. By focusing on youth and juniors, we can expect good performances in multisporting events in the coming years.
