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India’s lifter in the Men’s 61kg Weightlifting Final, Gururaja Poojary put on a show in Birmingham as the 29-year-old lifted a whopping 269kg (aggregate) to win the bronze medal. Poojary successfully lifted 118kg in the Snatch round before lifting a massive 151kg in the Clean and Jerk round. Malaysia’s Aznil Muhamad won the gold medal with a massive lift of 285kg.
Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea lifter Morea Baru finished in the second position and took home the silver medal with a lift of 273kg. Baru lifted 121kg in the Snatch Round and 152kg in the Clean and Jerk Round to finish second. The PNG lifter who holds expertise in C&J lifting tried challenging Aznil Muhamad for the gold medal by going for a lift of 165kg in his third attempt but failed.
Gururaja, on the other hand, started his day with a successful lift of 115kg in his first attempt of the Snatch round. The Indian then added another 3kg for his second attempt and successfully lifted 118kg. Gururaja tried to better himself by lifting 120kg in his third attempt of the Snatch round but failed. Nonetheless, his lift of 118kg was enough to give him an edge over others.
The 29-year-old then began his Clean and Jerk round with a successful lift of 144kg to quickly climb up on the leaderboard. Poojary added 4kg to the barbell for his second attempt and successfully lifted 148kg equalling his personal best in this category.
But this lift was not enough as Canadian Youri Simard was giving him a tough fight. Nonetheless, the Indian lifter took a chance by adding 3kg for his final attempt and created a personal best record (of a lift of 151kg). With this lift, Poojary pipped Simard by 1 kilo to take the bronze medal.