"I wanted to give my best performance"
The Commonwealth Games 2022 continues to see thrilling sporting action.
Australia is currently at the top of the leaderboard, with 123 medals won so far, with 46 of them being Gold.
Team India is currently placed seventh, having collected 18 medals.
When broken down, this includes five Gold, six Silver and seven Bronze.
The likes of veteran weightlifter Vikas Thakur and judoka Tulika Mann have won Silver medals in their respective disciplines.
When it comes to Indian Gold medallists, there have been five so far.
We look at these Commonwealth Games 2022 winners in more detail.
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu
Weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu achieved India’s first Gold medal of the Games in the 49kg category.
She broke the Commonwealth Record (CR) and Games Record (GR) in snatch (88kg) and the GR in the clean and jerk (113kg).
Her total of 201kg won her Gold.
After the event, Chanu said: “I knew the Commonwealth Games was a relatively easy competition for me.
“Even my coach maintained the same. I never took it easy, though. My fight was against myself.
“I have a lot of goals in mind. I wanted to give my best performance and it’s good that the records also came along.”
Jeremy Lalrinnunga
Teenager Jeremy Lalrinnunga battled muscle cramps to win India’s second Gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The 19-year-old was participating in the men’s 67kg weightlifting final.
He successfully lifted 140kg, which was a record at the Games.
Lalrinnunga then lifted 160kg in the clean and jerk category, finishing with a combined 300kg – another record.
After his win, Lalrinnunga said: “It seems I’m in a different world now and living a dream.
“It’s my first major competition at the senior level after the 2018 Youth Olympics.”
Achinta Sheuli
Hours after Jeremy Lalrinnunga’s triumph, Achinta Sheuli won India’s third Gold in the 73kg category.
The 20-year-old weightlifter lifted 143kg in the snatch round before lifting 170kg in the clean and jerk.
His total of 313kg was a Commonwealth Games record and was enough to secure him the top prize.
After the win, Sheuli said: “It was not easy, but somehow I made it easy as I was not able to make a proper lift on my second attempt, there was tough fight after that.
“Vijay sir was telling me to do better, I tried my best.”
“My mother has left tailoring now, earlier she used to do it from morning to night. I also used to do it.
“I want to dedicate this medal to my brother as he always supports me. There was pressure as Sanket Sargar had won a medal.”
Women’s Fours
India’s lawn bowls women’s fours team made history by winning Gold, having defeated South Africa in the final.
This was the country’s first medal in the lawn bowls event.
The team consisted of Rupa Rani Tirkey, Lovely Choubey, Pinki and Nayanmoni Saikia.
It was a tough game but India held their nerve and went on to win the match 17-10.
Rupa said: “We had won medals in Asia Pacific and Asian Championships in between but we had to win this medal in CWG to attract everyone’s attention.
“We came into the Games with a lot of determination.”
Men’s Table Tennis
India defended their men’s table tennis title with a victory over Singapore.
Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran set the ball rolling with a dominant doubles win as India wrapped up a 3-1 victory.
Zhe Yu Clarence Chew delivered Singapore’s only success to level the contest at 1-1, but singles wins for both Gnanasekaran and Desai landed India the Gold.
India’s Sharath Kamal Achanta said:
“Last time we had the same amount of pressure.”
“This time we’ve had good teams around [us] and really Singapore did a fantastic job beating England [in the semi-finals] yesterday.
“We didn’t expect them [Singapore] to play the level what they were playing today, but they put up a fantastic fight and we’re really happy that we could step it up and close the match in the way we did it.”
India currently has five Gold medals, with many athletes producing record-breaking performances.
With the Commonwealth Games continuing until August 8, there will be plenty of opportunities for India to add to their tally.
Loading ...