Sixteen Indian weightlifters have qualified for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Australia after the International Weightlifting Federation published the latest rankings. Olympian S Sathish Kumar and K Sanjita Chanu will be looking to repeat their gold medal performances from the last edition in the 2018 event, which will be held at the Gold Coast in April.
In previous edition of the Games – which was in Glasgow in 2014 – Indians had bagged as many as 12 medals, including three gold. Apart from Sanjita and Sathish, Sukhen Dey (men’s 56 kg) had also won a yellow medal but he has failed to qualify this time around. In 56kg category, India will be represented by Gururaja. Sanjita, who had won the gold in women’s 48 kg, has climbed up by a weight division and will be competing in 53 kg while Satish would be defending his title in men’s 77 kg.
In the men’s category, Sathish and Vikas Thakur are the only two lifters to have made the cut from the team that visited Glasgow. Thakur had bagged a silver medal in 85 kg but this time he would be taking part in 94 kg. In the women’s divison, Sanjita, Olympian Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, Punam Yadav and Vandna Gupta are some of the known faces from 2014. Mirabai Chanu had won a silver in 48 kg whereas Yadav finished with a bronze in the 69 kg category. Gupta, competing in the 63 kg bracket, had finished fourth.
Squad
Men: Gururaja (56 kg), Muthupandi Raja (62 kg), Deepak Lather (69 kg), S Sathish Kumar (77 kg), Ragala Venkat Rahul (85 kg), Vikas Thakur (94 kg), Pardeep Singh (105 kg) and Gurdeep Singh (+105 kg).
Women: Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (48 kg), K Sanjita Chanu (53 kg), Saraswati Rout (58 kg), Vandna Gupta (63 kg), Punam Yadav (69 kg), Seema (75 kg), Lalchhanhimi (90 kg) and Purnima Pandey (+90 kg).
(With inputs from PTI)