Lifters’ Gold Class swells to 4

Nowhere close to complete fitness and without a fulltime physio to care for their niggles, Indian weightlifters remained leaps ahead of their Commonwealth Games competitors, taking their gold medal tally to four through Sathish Sivalingam (77kg) and Venkat Rahul Ragala (85kg) here on Saturday.

After Mirabai Chanu (48kg) and Sanjita Chanu (53kg), Sathish and Rahul continued India's gold-collecting spree at the Games. The yellow metal count is already one more than the previous 2014 edition with two more days of competition left.

On Saturday, Sathish, the defending champion, and Rahul overcame the pain barrier posed by their respective unhealed thigh and knee injuries to claim gold medals.

The 25-year-old Sathish lifted a total of 317kg (114kg+173kg) and was so ahead of competition that he forfeited his final clean and jerk lift. Rahul, on the other hand, had to wait right till the end owing to close competition from eventual silver-medallist Samoa's Don Opeloge.

Both the boxers were nursing niggles but their physio Aakrant Saxena did not have access to them in the competition area because of the accreditation blunder that hasn't given the requisite access. It's a blunder for which neither the national federation nor the IOA is willing to claim the blame.

"I had no hopes of winning a medal after I injured my thighs during the national championships while attempting 194kg in clean and jerk. It's a quadriceps problem, even now I am competing at less than ideal fitness but I am glad that was enough to get me a gold," Sathish said after his medal ceremony during which he was accorded a warm applause by the packed arena.

The 21-year-old Rahul, who is a Commonwealth Championships gold-medallist, lifted a total of 338kg (151kg+187kg) to finish on top.

"I had been weakened by a knee injury during the Commonwealth Championships last year. But the coaches supported me immensely to get this medal. I haven't been able to train that well," he said.

"I am still not fully recovered," said the lifter who wears his later mother's anklet around his forehead as a goodluck charm.

"I put this on after she passed away two years ago. I get inspired by        this," said the lifter who managed a total of 351kg (156kg+195kg) in the Commonwealth Championships last year.

The Indian was locked in a close battle with Opeloge, who ended with a total of 331kg (151kg+180kg). Both the lifters opted for 191kg as their final clean and jerk lift and both of them failed but Rahul clinched the top prize owing to Opeloge's failed second attempt at a 188kg lift.

"This is the most important medal of my career," said the CWG debutant, whose father R Madhu was also a national level weightlifter.

athletics campaign to start

Seeking to improve their medal haul from the last edition, India begin their athletics campaign in the 21st Commonwealth Games with the men's and women's race walkers competing in the 20km event here on Sunday.

India had won a gold, silver and bronze in the 2014 Glasgow Games and the country's athletes are aiming to increase that haul with the likes of javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and young high jumper Tejaswin Shankar in impressive form.

The men's 20km race walk event was introduced in the 1998 Games while the women's 20km event was included in the 2002 CWG and the Indians are not known as a force to reckon with in the race walk events.

The only Indian to have won a medal in 20km race walk event was Harminder Singh who clinched a bronze in 2010 Delhi CWG.

In a field of 13, Soumya stands at third among the season's best timings behind two Australians- Beki Smith (1:31:23) and Jemima Montag (1:31:26). There are six athletes who have season best timings of less than 1 hour and 32 minutes.

In the men's 20km race walk, India are fielding national record holder K T Irfan and Manish Singh Rawat and they have to improve their timings drastically if they want to be on podium as there are four competitors who can finish in sub 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Shot putter Tejinder Pal Singh Toor should qualify for the finals from the qualifying round on Sunday. He had won a gold in the Federation Cup National Championships last month with a throw of 20.24m.