Gold Coast: Venkat Rahul Ragala extended India’s medal-hunting run in the weightlifting competitions as he clinched the gold medal in the men’s 85kg category at the Commonwealth Games here on Saturday.
Venkat Rahul, the 21-year-old from Andhra Pradesh, lifted a total of 338kg — 151kg in snatch and 187 in clean and jerk — to bring maiden gold medal for India in this weight category.
The silver medal went to Samoa’s Don Opeloge, who lifted 331kg — three more than Malaysian bronze medallist Mohammad Fazrul Azrie Mohdad. Cameroon’s Donald Keyimeh Nkoh was fourth with a total lift of 326kg.
Venkat Rahul’s gold medal was India’s fourth in Gold Coast and sixth overall in this edition. All medals for India here have come from weightlifting category.
Also, India has got four gold medals in weightlifting competitions in an edition of the CWG for the first time.
Venkat Rahul lifted 147kg in his first effort in snatch to set the lead early. Opeloge and Fazrul were not behind, lifting 144 and 145kg respectively in their first efforts.
Venkata Rahul, in his second effort, failed to lift 151kg, while Fazrul flopped in his 150kg lift, Opeloge took the lead with a lift of 148kg.
The Indian, however, bounced back in his third effort of lifting 151kg. Opeloge too didn’t relent and matched the Indian’s effort to tie the top spot after the snatch round, while Fazrul fell behind by failing to lift 150kg for the second straight time.
Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj, meanwhile, finished ninth in the semi-finals of the men’s 50-metre backstroke while Sajan Prakash finished a disappointing last in the men’s 200 metre butterfly final.
Placed in the semi-final 2, Srihari completed the race in 26.50 seconds with a 0.64 second reaction time. In the eight-men final, Sajan, clocked 1:59.05 seconds to finish five seconds more than the gold medal winner Chad Le Clos of South Africa.
Srihari position in the semi-final 2 was fifth but in the overall semi-finals standings, he was ninth. Top eight performers enter the final.
India’s cyclists Deborah Herold and Aleena Reji finished 13th and 14th, respectively, in the women’s 500m time trial. Deborah had an average speed km/h of 49.757, while Aleena’s effort was 49.576.
