Gururaja, the Commonwealth Games debutant, won India’s first medal, a silver in the men’s 56 kg weightlifting event, at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.
He completed a personal best of 249 kg, his personal best, when he added 138 kg in the clean and jerk, to go along with the 111 kg he lifted in the snatch earlier. He was third after the snatch but failed to land his first two attempts at the clean and jerk, before managing the decisive lift.
For the longest time, the 26-year-old wanted to be a wrestler and follow in Sushil Kumar’s footsteps after he saw the latter clinch bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Unable to find a training academy near his home in Kundapura, Karnataka, Gururaja’s attention was diverted to weightlifting instead, by a watchful coach.
He had to work hard to make ends meet, as he did not have enough money initially for his diet and kit. He would have given up on the sport, had his friends not financed him the money to continue with his career.
Gururaja has a bronze in the 2017 Commonwealth Championships, to go along with his 2016 gold. He is an employee of the Indian Air Force and will hope that this medal will go a long way in helping him out of his financial stress.