The young three-member Indian weightlifting squad, expected to be torchbearers for India in the future, will return from Tashkent with rich experience in the Asian Weightlifting Championships, a qualification event for 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Gyaneshwari Yadav, hailing from Chhattisgarh, lifted personal best weights in snatch, clean and jerk as well as total in the women’s 49kg division to produce the best performance by an Indian in the competition, though Ditimoni Sonowal finished fourth in women’s 64kg division to earn the best position among the three lifters.
Competing in the same weight category as Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games medalist Mirabai Chanu,
Gyaneshwari Yadav finished eighth among 16 entrants. The Chhattisgarh ironwoman, who will be 21 next month, had a successful snatch of 79kg and lifted 99kg in clean and jerk to total 178kg. These were better than her previous best efforts of 78kg, 97kg and 175kg respectively.
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Assam’s Ditimoni Sonowal, just a few weeks past her 20th birthday, finished fourth in the women’s 64kg division. After winning gold in the National Games with total lifts of 200kg (88/112), she finished second behind Railways’ Nirupama Devi (200) with a total of 197kg (87/110) in the National Championships.
The sole Indian representative in the men’s events, 19-year-old Valluri Ajay Babu finished sixth among 10 entrants in the 81kg division. He started well by equaling his personal best of 137kg in snatch but was unable to replicate that in clean and jerk. He failed to lift 165kg in his third attempt and with a best of 160kg, his total of 297 was also 5kg short of his personal best.
The 21-year-old Mukund Santosh Aher and 25-year-old Ajit Narayana withdrew from the men’s 55kg and men’s 73kg competition after their entries had been sent, reducing India to a three-member squad in Tashkent. Neither would have been among the medals even if he equaled his personal best totals, 245kg (108. 137) and 312kg (140, 170) respectively.
North Koreans have set many nine world records in winning eight of the nine gold medals on offer on the first four days of competition until Wednesday. Indonesia’s Rahmat Erwin lay down the gauntlet for Olympic gold when he beat his own clean and jerk world record twice on the way to winning the 73kg title.
China preferred to skip the competition and focus on preparing for the Olympic Games.
The results (only events featuring Indians):
Men
81kg: 1. Ri Chong Song (North Korea) 369kg (169kg snatch/200kg clean and jerk); 2. Alexandr Uvaraov (Uzbekistan) 343 (153/190); 3. Torayev Gaygysyz (Turkmenistan) 337 (148/189); 6. Valluri Ajaya Babu 297 (137/160).
Women
49kg: 1. Ri Song Gum (North Korea) 220 (95/125); 2. Rira Suzuki (Japan) 191 (82/109); 3. Rosegie Ramos (Philippines) 190 (88/102). 8. Gyaneshwari Yadav 178 (79/99).
64kg: 1. Ri Suk (North Korea) 253 (112/141); 2. Lu Wei-Chia (Taipei) 203 (85/118); 3. Park Minkying (South Korea) 202 (86/116). 4. Ditimoni Sonowal 194 (83/111).
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