Glasgow, July 26 -- Olympic medallist Mirabai Chanu delivered another commanding performance to win a record third consecutive Commonwealth Games gold on Sunday, while Rishikanta Singh battled a knee injury to clinch a historic silver as India enjoyed a strong day in weightlifting.
Competing in the women's 48kg category, Mirabai rewrote the Commonwealth and Commonwealth Games record books with a total lift of 190kg, including 85kg in snatch and 105kg in clean and jerk. The 31-year-old from Manipur recovered after missing her opening attempts in both disciplines and still finished a massive 22kg ahead of Nigeria's Ruth Asuquo Nyong, who settled for silver with 168kg. With the title secured and the Asian Games less than two months away, Mirabai skipped her final clean and jerk attempt. The victory gave India its first gold and third medal of the Games after para powerlifter Jhandu Kumar's heavyweight bronze on Friday.
Earlier, Rishikanta raised hopes of gold by equalling the Commonwealth Games snatch record with 121kg to lead after the opening discipline. However, a knee injury suffered a week before the competition resurfaced during the clean and jerk, restricting him to 143kg and a total of 264kg. Malaysia's Mohamad Aniq Kasdan surged to gold with a Games record total of 273kg, while Kenya's Joshua Amunga Mboya took bronze with 260kg.
India also stayed in medal contention in swimming as the men's 4x200m freestyle relay team of Dhakshan Shashikumar, Aneesh Sunil Kumar Gowda, Aryan Nehra and Srihari Nataraj clocked 7:39.48 to qualify fifth overall for the final after edging Jersey.
In lawn bowls, Rupa Rani Tirkey and Pinki Singh's three-match winning run ended with a tie-break defeat to Namibia's Amanda Steenkamp and Diana Viljoen. The Indian pair must now beat England in their final sectional match to keep their semifinal hopes alive.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.