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The Indian weightlifters flourished after winning their fourth medal in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022, with Bindyarani Devi securing the silver in the women's 55kg category. This was India's fourth weightlifting medal in as many categories at CWG 2022 in Birmingham on Sunday (July 31) morning.
The 23-year-old created a Games record by lifting 116kg in the clean and jerk after a personal best of 86kg in the snatch section, totalling 202 kg, adding to Sanket Sargar's silver in the men's 55kg, Gururaja Poojary's bronze in the men's 61kg and Mirabai Chanu's gold in the women's 49kg category.
Meanwhile, the gold medal expectedly went to Nigeria's Adijat Adenike Olarinoye, who lifted 203kg (92kg+111kg). She also smashed the Games record in snatch and total effort. Local favourite England's Fraer Morrow bagged the bronze with a 198kg effort (89kg+109kg).
"It is my first CWG and I feel very happy about the silver and about the Games record as well," Bindyarani said.
Like Chanu, Bindyarani too hails from Manipur. She won the Commonwealth Championships gold in 2019 before bagging a silver in the 2021 edition. She is the daughter of a farmer who also owns a grocery shop and took up weightlifting due to her short height. She is also a 2016 Commonwealth Junior Championship silver medallist
"I was into taekwondo from 2008 to 2012 after that I shifted to weightlifting. I had a height problem so had to shift. Everyone told me my height is ideal for weightlifting. So I changed," she said.
Bindyarani was in the bronze medal place after the snatch section with a personal best of 86kg, behind Olarinoye (92kg) and Fraer (89kg). She made an unsuccessful second attempt for 115 kg before lifting a kilogram more to elevate her to silver medal position from bronze as Morrow fluffed her final 115kg attempt.
