Female Indian athletes are on fire at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. On Day 1, Mirabai Chanu and Gururaja had put up strong performances leading to sky-high expectations from the weightlifters. It must have been a lot of pressure to handle but India’s Sanjita Chanu overcame it and earned another medal in the sport for our country and not just any medal, gold medal. She bagged a gold in 53 kg weightlifting event.
Sanjita registered scores of 81, 83 and 84 in Snatch. And the last one was so good that broke the CWG record. Sanjita took a 3 kg lead over her closest opponent, Rachel LeBlanc-Bazinet from Canada. Rachel had lifted 81 kg in Snatch.
In Clean & Jerk, she defeated Loa Dika Toua and won India’s second Gold in the 2018 CWG. Although she failed to complete the third attempt, Sanjita lifted 104 kg and 108 kg in her first two rounds. Her opponent from PNG failed to match-up to her. To beat back Loa Dika’s lift, Sanjita had to lift 192 kgs. She set a Games Record of 108 kgs in clean and jerk to beat the competition. The game finished with the PNG weightlifter lifting 10 kgs behind Sanjita.
Earlier, Sanjita had won a gold in Glasgow 2014 but in 48 kg category. In 2018, she switched to 53 kg and won again! She’s our gold girl!
Sanjita made the headline in 2009 after winning gold at Senior Nationals before making her name at the international stage with a bronze at the Asian Weightlifting Championships in 2011. Just a year later, she bagged a gold at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships.
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