Commonwealth Games 2022: Mirabai Chanu wins first gold medal for India

Mirabai Chanu won India's first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022 with a combined effort of 201 Kg in snatch and clean and jerk. Like had happened at the last CWG, Mirabai thus was the reason for the Indian anthem to ring out at the CWG arena in Birmingham for the first time.

With a dominating performance, Mirabai eventually finished 29kg clear of her nearest rival.

At the end of the Snatch round, she had a 12kg lead over her nearest opponent, having lifted 88kg in the Snatch round.

She sealed the gold medal with a lift of 109kg at her first attempt in the Clean and Jerk.

This is Chanu's third medal at the Commonwealth Games, after her silver in the 2014 edition in Glasgow and the gold at Gold Coast 2018 in the 48 Kg category.

This is India's third medal of the day – Sanket Sargar had won silver and Gururaj Poojary had claimed bronze in their respective events earlier.

The silver went to Mauritius' Marie Hanitra Roilya Ranaivosoa (172kg) and bronze to Canada's Hannah Kaminski (171 kg). In a remarkable performance, Chanu smashed the Commonwealth (Commonwealth Championships and CWG) and Games record in snatch. She obliterated the Games record in clean and jerk as well as total lift.

Going into the competition, she had a personal best of 88kg and 119kg, a world record in clean and jerk, totalling 207kg. Her nearest rival in the field, Stella Kingsley of Nigeria, came into the contest with a personal best of 168kg (72kg+96kg), summing up the gulf between her and the rest.

(With PTI inputs)