Sathish Kumar Sivalingam realised his dream of four years and helped India to its sixth gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, winning the men’s 77kg weightlifting title on Sunday night.
The 22-year-old lifter from Vellore (Tamil Nadu) was unstoppable in a 30-strong field lifting a total of 328kg and setting a Games record.
The Indians had more reason to cheer as K. Ravi Kumar finished with a well-deserved silver, having moved to a higher weight category from the 69kg class in which he had won gold at New Delhi.
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The Indians were really a notch or two above the rest, making their appearances only after the other 28 had finished their attempts.
Sathish sealed this beyond doubt with lifts of 142kg, 146kg and 149kg to jump ahead and also erase the record of 148kg set by Peter Yuko (Nauru) in New Delhi.
Ravi Kumar, returning from injury, could complete his opening weight of 142kg only on his second attempt. He also failed with his third attempt of 147kg but still his card of 142kg was the second best of the evening.
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Into the clean and jerk, the two Indians again did not encounter any problems as Sathish came up with a superb 179kg off his second attempt, missing out on his first attempt of 178kg and 185kg in the third, to assert his superiority.
Ravi Kumar started off with a good 175kg but was unable to come up with a repeat when the bar was raised to 185kg. Yet, with a total of 317kg, he was 3kg clear of Australian Francois Etoundi, who had a best of 137kg in snatch and 177kg in clean and jerk for a total of 314kg.
The gold and silver medal helped India improve upon its New Delhi performance where it had finished with a tally of eight medals (2-2-4). India still has two other lifters in the fray — Vikas Thakur (85kg) and Chandrakant Mali (95kg).
Ecstatic
Sathish was ecstatic with his effort: “I feel so good, having achieved the dream I’ve had for the past four years. In fact, it was the dream of my family too and now I am delighted for them as well.
“The gold medal means everything to me. My father was a national-level lifter and it was he who always drove me to the gymnasium. So, this one is for him and the rest of my family,” the Railway employee said.