Mirabai Chanu of India wins the first gold medal for the country at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games on April 5. The 23-year-old champion weightlifter hailing from Manipur scored her personal best and world record of 196kg (86 kg in snatch and 110 in clean and jerk) in the women's 48 kg category discipline. Mirabai Chanu toppled Mauritius' Marie Hanitra Roilya and Papua New Guinea's Thelma Toua to clinch the gold medal. With her impressive performance, the young weightlifter takes India in the top position of GC 2018 medal table. Earlier, P Gururaja bagged silver medal to open account of India at the Commonwealth Games 2018 medal tally. The opening day of sporting action certainly belonged to Indian weightlifters who had a blast at the highest level of international competition. Commonwealth Games 2018 Medal Table: Countrywise Tally of GC 2018 Medal Winners.
Chanu had won a silver medal in the previous edition of Commonwealth Games, the Glasgow 2014. This time around she bettered her last performance and given India the first taste of gold. Her gold medal-winning lift also saw Mirabai Chanu make a new world record of 196kg (86 kg in snatch and 110 in clean and jerk). In 2017, Chanu had won the Gold medal in the Women's 48 kg category by lifting a world record 194 kg in total (85 kg snatch and 109 kg clean & jerk) in the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships held at Anaheim, CA, United States.
Earlier, weightlifter P Gururaja on Thursday knocked off India’s medal tally at Commonwealth Games 2018, winning silver, in the 56kg category. After lifting his best weight of 111kg in the snatch, Gururaja added 138kg in his third attempt in the clean and jerk to end with a total lift of 249kg. This feat is also his personal best. In 2017, Gururaja had claimed a Commonwealth Championships bronze in Australia.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 05, 2018 11:38 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).