Bindyarani Devi won silver in the women's 55kg final, giving India its fourth medal of the day and maintaining the country's love affair with weightlifting at the Commonwealth Games 2022. Bindyarani joined the list a few hours after champion Mirabai Chanu earned the first gold medal for India at CWG 2022, to go with silver from Sanket Sargar and a bronze from Gururaja Poojary, after lifting an outstanding 202kgs (86kg in snatch and 116kg in clean and jerk).
Bindyarani began her quest for a CWG medal with a crisp lift of 81kgs on her first attempt, then smashed it to win 84kgs and 86kgs on her second and third attempts, respectively. Bindyarani finished third in the snatch series, trailing Nigeria's Adijat Olarinoye and England's Fraer Morro, who lifted 92kg and 89kg, respectively.
Bindyarani, who had won medals in a number of weightlifting events, now has her name inscribed in the CWG games for India. Bindyarani previously won gold in the clean and jerk event at the World Weightlifting Championships in 2021. She also managed to lift 84kg in snatch for a total of 198kg, placing her fourth overall. Her additional achievements include gold and silver medals at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in 2019 and 2021.
Earlier, Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu clinched India's first gold medal at this year's Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Chanu won the gold in the 49kg clean and jerk event. Chanu lifted a total of 201kg to give India their third medal at the games.
In hockey, India's women's hockey team leads Wales 2-0 at half-time in a pool A game. In table tennis, the women's team crashed out in the semifinals after losing to Malaysia. Manika Batra got India back in the contest after she defeated Ying Ho in a five-game thriller. Sreeja Akula had given India a 2-1 lead before Malaysia made it 2-2 to force the decider. However, Ying Ho defeated Reeth Tennison 3-2 in the final game to send the defending champions packing.
Earlier, weightlifter Gururaja Poojary gave India their second medal of the ongoing Commonwealth Games with his bronze in the men's 61kg category on Saturday. Gururaja finished third in the standings with a total of 269 kg lift. He had stood fourth after the conclusion of the snatch round with a best of 118 kg lift but put a further better performance to finish on the podium.
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