Mirabai Chanu, Gururaja sparkle with gold, silver for India

Weightlifters S Mirabai Chanu and Gururaja sparkled to deliver a gold and a silver, respectively, for India on the opening day of the 21st edition of the Commonwealth Games here yesterday.Mirabai, the reigning world champion, delivered a power-packed performance in the women’s 48kg category, leaving the competition far behind by setting Games and Commonwealth records in the snatch, clean and jerk as well as the total.The Manipuri powerhouse registered 86kg in the snatch and 110kg in clean and jerk for a total of 196kg. Such was her dominance that she net a record in each of her six lifts in the competition.In the men’s 56kg category, Gururaja had a best attempt of 111kg in the snatch and 138kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 249kg to bag the silver medal.The performances of Mirabai and Gururaja meant that weightlifting as a discipline continues to be a main medal-provider at the CWG.The former obliterated the previous Games record of 175kg set by Nigeria’s Augustina Nwaokolo at the 2010 edition by a considerable distance.Her previous personal best was 194kg, which she had set during her title winning run at the World Championships last year.Marie Hanitra of Mauritius finished a distant second with a total of 170kg while Dinusha Gomes of Sri Lanka took bronze with 155kg.Chanu started off on a rousing note by breaking the existing Games record with a lift of 80kg. She went on to break the record two more times with successful attempts of 84kg and 86kg, the latter being her new personal best.That gave her a massive lead of 10kg over second placed Marie at the end of the snatch session.The Indian star started the clean and jerk session in similar fashion, lifting 103kg in her first attempt to take the lead straightaway.Another successful lift of 107kg consolidated her position at the top. The Manipuri went on to post a new personal best with 110kg in her third and final attempt to close off a dominating performance.Gururaja fell short of Azhar Ahmed of Malaysia, who won gold with a new CWG record of 261kg. Azhar, who had emerged champion at the Commonwealth Championships last year, bettered the previous Games record by one kilogram.He also set a new Games record in the snatch with a successful lift of 117kg in his second attempt. He bettered the previous record of 116kg set by his compatriot Ibrahim at the New Delhi Games in 2010.He cleared 144kg in the clean and jerk which his personal best.Chaturanga Lakmal of Sri Lanka claimed bronze with a total of 248kg. He managed 114kg in the snatch and 134kg in clean and jerk.