NEW DELHI: India’s Gururaja claimed silver in the men’s 56kg weightlifting event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games , thus handing India its first medal at the quadrennial event on the opening day.

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After lifting his best weight of 111kg in the snatch, the 28-year-old added 138kg in his third attempt in the clean and jerk to end with a total lift of 249kg - achieving his personal best.

Malaysia’s Muhammad Izhar Ahmad won gold with a total lift of 261kg - a Commonwealth Games record - while bronze went to Sri Lanka’s Chaturanga Lakmal (248kg).

In 2017, Gururaja had claimed a Commonwealth Championships bronze in Australia.

An employee of the Indian Air Force, Gururaja, who began weightlifting in 2010, had won gold in the Commonwealth senior weightlifting championship, lifting a personal best of 249kg (108+141) in Penang in 2016. Earlier that year, he won gold at the South Asian Games.

The son of a pick-up-truck driver, Gururaja hails from Kundapura in coastal Karnataka and started out as a wrestler before switching to powerlifting and then weightlifting.



In Video: CWG 2018: Gururaja claims silver in men’s 56kg weightlifting