Sanket Sargar battles through injury to bag silver at Commonwealth Games 2022

The weightlifter suffered a knock to his elbow before his final lift.

With a combined lift of 248kgs, Sanket Sargar set the standard in the men’s 55kgs weightlifting event, but lost out on the gold medal to Malaysian Bin Kasdan Mohamad Aniq in the last clean and jerk lift. 

The son of a famer, Sargar ploughed through the opposition to open India’s medal tally. Isuru Kumara Yodage rounded off the medal winners by clinching the bronze with a combined lift of 225kgs. 

Sargar started off by listing 107kgs as his first snatch attempt, showing the confidence he and his coach Vijay Sharma have. Malaysia’s Bin Kasdan Mohamad Aniq was the favourite heading into the event. Kasdan won silver in the World Weightlifting Championships last year and set his entry weight as 107 kgs. Both Sargar and Aniq have lifted 107kgs in snatch, but the Malaysian had lifted 140kgs in clean and jerk compared to the Indian’s 135kgs prior to the Commonwealth Games (CWG). 

Sri Lanka’s Isuru Kumara Yodage was the first to successfully breach the 100kg mark and set his third attempt at 112kgs. Sargar began with a successful first attempt, no lean back and full extension of the arms as he lifted 107kgs without breaking a sweat. Aniq Kasdan, the winner of Malaysia’s first world championship medal, also managed to lift 107 in his first attempt but seemed to take relatively longer to get the perfect elevation. 

Sanket Sargar’s camp and Kasdan’s camp then resorted to brain games, playing around with the weight categories before the second attempts. The Indian moved up to 111kgs after initially announcing 108. Sargar’s second lift of 111kgs was an incredible effort of him managing to get completely underneath the bar after a jittery start to his lift. The Malaysian’s second attempt of 111kg was unsuccessful after he bent then straightened his elbows. 

Aniq Kasdan’s final attempt to match the Indian also proved to be unsuccessful as he tried to push himself beyond his capabilities. The Sri Lankan Yodage returned with a seven kgs weight increase and his 112kgs attempt was reviewed by the jury and declared a no lift. His elbow was clearly bent and then straightened, prompting the review and subsequent decision. 

Sargar’s final attempt of 113 kgs was another display of his prowess in the snatch category, matching his personal best. He proudly pointed to the India logo on his chest after his third technically flawless lift. Sargar led the rest by a massive six kgs heading into the clean and jerk, knowing that it was Kasdan’s forte. 

In the clean and jerk, Sanket Sargar began with a successful 135kgs despite a sub-optimal elbow lock. Kasdan impressed straight of the box with a wonderful 138kgs lift. Sargar’s second lift of 139kgs was where the Indian faltered, dropping his chest on the jerk and overstretching his right elbow. He came back against all odds in a risky third attempt, but the elbow gave way as the lion-hearted Sargar winced away in pain. 

Yodage tried to snatch silver with a 141 kgs attempt but he could not get the required elevation for the jerk. He had to settle for the bronze, as Kasdan failed at 142 kgs but stayed firmly balanced on his last jerk lift of 142kgs, a CWG record to snatch gold from India by a single kilogram totalling 249 kgs to Sanket Sargar’s 248. 

Sargar hails from Sangli, Maharashtra which is a weightlifting hub. He holds the Commonwealth Championships record in 55kg with a combined lift of 256kg (113kgs in snatch and 143kgs in Clean & Jerk, winning gold this year. The 21-year-old is the national champion in his weight category and now a Commonwealth Games medal winner. 

India was the most successful nation in weightlifting during the 2018 Commonwealth Games with nine medals, including five golds. 

India is the second most successful nation after Australia in CWG weightlifting with a total of 125 medals, 43 of them golds.  

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