Harjinder Kaur lifts Bronze in weightlifting at Commonwealth Games

The 25-year-old got a lucky card after gold favourite Joy Ogbonne failed in her attempts.

Harjinder Kaur won the bronze medal in the women's 71kg category weightlifting event. The Indian lifter was hugely benefited by Joy Ogbonne Eze of Nigeria as the latter couldn’t register even a single legitimate lift in the clean and jerk round.

Harjinder registered a combined total of 212kgs. She lifted 93kgs in the snatch round and 119kgs in the clean&jerk round. Home favourite Sarah Davies of England won gold by a record combined lift of 229kgs. Canada's Alexis Ashworth clinched the silver with a combined lift of 214kgs.

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She began her quest with an unsuccessful lift of 90kgs in the snatch round. She did manage to lift 90kgs in her second snatch attempt. In her third lift, Harjinder pulled off her personal best of 93kgs to end the snatch round. At the halfway stage, she was in the fourth position with one KG separating her from the third-ranked weightlifter.

Harjinder started her clean&jerk round with a lift of 113kgs despite initially stating 115kgs as her first lift of the round. She went on to lift 116kgs and 119kgs successfully to end her challenge. She registered only one unsuccessful attempt and displayed great technique in her remaining five lifts.

Earlier in the day, Ajay Singh finished fourth in the men’s 81kg category. He missed out on the bronze medal by a narrow margin of one kilogram.

Talents for the future

Harjinder, 25, hails from Nabha city of Punjab. Her training base is at Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala, Punjab. Previously, she won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships 2021 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She is the 2020 Khelo India University Games winner as well.

Weightlifters rising to the expectations

Head coach Vijay Sharma had predicted 11-12 medals from his weightlifters before the CWG 2022 kicked off. With three gold medals (Mirabai Chanu, Jeremy Lalrinnunga, Achinta Sheuli), two silvers (Bindyarani Devi, Sanket Sargar) and two bronze (Gururaja Poojary, Harjinder Kaur), the overall tally is seven. The target of 11-12 medals seems within reach!

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