India’s Punam Yadav had a disastrous outing in the Women’s 76kg Weightlifting Final as the lifter failed to successfully lift any weight in the Clean and Jerk round. Yadav was well set to win the silver medal having successfully lifted 98kg in the Snatch round. However, the Indian failed to complete the lift in her first two attempts of the C&J round. She almost lifted in her third attempt but dropped the barbell before the referee buzzed and hence it was not counted.
With Punam failing to perform on the big stage, questions were raised, and the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) was also bombarded with questions. Now, the president of the governing body has replied saying that Punam Yadav competed despite not being fully fit. Sahdev Yadav on Tuesday claimed that Yadav competed with an injury and that she has herself to blame for that.
"Ek medal haath se chhut gayi -- clearly she dropped one medal from the weightlifting arena," Yadav told PTI. "That's why initially we had held back her name. But the athlete claimed she's fit and showed a fitness certificate issued by a doctor. There's no way we could withhold her name as she joined the team late.
"If you notice her lifts closely, she was not giving her best force while lifting the barbell from clean to jerk. The knee has to bend to get that full force. But in her case, it was missing. It's clear that she's not 100 per cent and we lost out on a medal," Yadav claimed.
Punam claims otherwise!
While IWF President claimed that the lifter was not fully fit, Punam Yadav said that she felt no such discomfort. "Haanji, haanji -- bilkul fit thi (Of course, I was fully fit). Niggles are part and parcel of a lifter's life and I was on course. It happens, my sheer bad luck," she said.
On dropping the barbell before the buzzer came out, Punam said that she got confused as one of the referees smiled at her. "Usne smile kiya and main throw kar diya (One of the judges smiled and I dropped it without seeing the light)," said Punam.