India's Gururaja Poojary showed nerves and muscles of steel as he did enough to hand India its second medal in 2022 Commonwealth Games. Gururaja lifted a total of 269 kgs, one kg more than Canada's Youri Simard, to win bronze in men's 61kg weightlifting.
The diminutive Indian lifted a total of 118kg in snatch and 151kg in clean and jerk to ensure a medal for himself and the country. It was in clean and jerk that Gururaja and Canada's Simard went face-to-face in an all out attempt to seal the bronze medal position. Simard lifted 149kg in his last attempt to get ahead of the Indian but Gururaja gave it his all to lift 151 and sealed the medal.
Malaysia's Aznil Bin Bidin Muhamad grabbed the gold medal with a Games record lift of 285kg (127+158). Morea Baru of Papua New Guinea bagged the silver with a total lift of 273kg (121+152).
It was India's second medal at the ongoing edition of the Games after Sanket Sagar won a silver in the men's 55kg category.
(with agency inputs)