Commonwealth Games: Luck favours Harjinder Kaur as she wins bronze for India, seventh medal in weightlifting

Birmingham, Aug. 2 (IANS): Indian weightlifter Harjinder Kaur claimed a bronze medal in the women’s 71 kg competition at the Commonwealth Games here despite not lifting her best in an event in which England’s Sarah Davies broke a plethora of records to storm to the gold medal.

The 25-year-old from Mehas village near Nabha in Punjab lifted 93 in snatch and 119 in clean and jerk for a below-par total of 212 kg in the competition and at one time thought that she had lost out on a medal as Alexis Ashworth of Canada, the eventual silver medallist, lifted her season’s best of 123 kg in clean and jerk to shoot up to 214 in the standings.

Harjinder was also lucky as Joy Ogbonne Eze of Nigeria suffered a washout, failing to lift 125 kg in clean and jerk in three attempts. As she had lifted 100 kg, seven kilos more than Harjinder, the Indian would have been relegated to the fourth position if the Nigerian had succeeded.

Harjinder, who hails from a farming family and has built up her muscles by working on the chaffing machine at home, started with 90 kg for her first attempt but she failed. She lifted it in her second attempt and raised her tally to 93 kg in her third and final attempt.

That put her in the fourth position behind Sarah Davies (103 — a Commonwealth Games record in the snatch), Eze of Nigeria at 100, and Australia’s Kiana Rose Elliott, who totalled 94. Alexis Ashworth was also in the mix at 91 kg after failing to lift 94.