Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Mirabai Chanu bagged the first gold medal for India on Saturday and Jeremy won second gold on Sunday.
Mizoram teenager Jeremy Lalrinnunga and weightlifter Achinta Sheuli maintained the country’s dominance in the weightlifting arena with a superlative gold-winning performance, which pushed India to the top six on the medal table on day three of the Commonwealth Games, at Birmingham on Sunday.
Achinta with his record performance bagged Gold for our nation. He lifted 137kg in his first snatch, 140kg in his second snatch and 43kg in his third snatch attempt in the men’s 73kg weightlifting and his last attempt made his debut on the CWG medal podium.
Making his debut at a multi-discipline Games at the senior level, the 19-year-old reigning Youth Olympic champion battled excruciating muscle cramps but shattered two records en route to the gold medal in the men’s 67kg category.
This was India’s second gold at CWG after Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Mirabai Chanu bagged the first gold medal for India on Saturday.
India now has six medals, all coming from the weightlifting arena at the National Exhibition Centre with Sanket Sargar (silver), Bidyarani Devi (silver) and Gururaj Poojary (bronze) also earning podium finishes on Saturday.
In boxing, world champion Nikhat Zareen stormed into the quarterfinals, while there was disappointment in store for Shiva Thapa who crashed out in the round of 16.
India also remained in medal contention in table tennis, squash and lawn balls entering into their respective quarterfinals.
In cycling too, Ronaldo Laitonjam lost out in the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s sprint event, while Indian gymnasts Yogeshwar Singh and Ruthuja Nataraj signed off at 15th and 17th spots in the men’s and women’s all-around artistic gymnastics finals respectively.
On a day Popy Hazarika (women’s 59kg) became the first of the six weightlifters who failed to win a medal after a forgettable seventh place finish, Army teenager Jeremy stamped his class.
In search of an elusive gold, the Indian men’s hockey team, which has won two silver medals (2010 and 2014), dished out an emphatic show to rout minnows Ghana 11-0 in a lopsided contest.
Meanwhile, the Indo-Pak cricket affair turned out to be a no contest as the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side picked up its first win of CWG with a ruthless win.
In the boxing ring, world champion Zareen sailed into the last eight of women’s 50kg, but it was curtains for Shiva Thapa as he crashed out of the men’s 63.5kg.
Former World Championship bronze medalist Thapa on the other hand lost 1-4 to Scotland’s Reese Lynch.
In table tennis, defending champions India stormed into the semi-finals of the men’s table tennis team event after thrashing Bangladesh 3-0 in the third last-eight tie on Sunday.
Ace Indian squash player Joshna Chinappa outplayed New Zealand’s Kaitlyn Watts 3-1 to progress to the women’s singles quarterfinals in her bid for an elusive gold.