Punam Yadav continued India’s gold rush in weightlifting at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast as she won the 69-kg category.
For Yadav, it was an improvement on her Glasgow performance as she had won a bronze in the 63-kg category four years ago, lifting 202 kg on that occasion (88 in the snatch and 114 in the clean and jerk).
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More impressively, Yadav was just an 18-year-old at the Glasgow games when she won her first Commonwealth medal. Hailing from the Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh, Yadav lifted a total of 222 kg.
Trained at the Sports Authority of India Training Centre, Varanasi, Yadav comes from a farming family with two other siblings also taking up weightlifting. Eventually, Shashi and Pooja Yadav would quit the sport due to their father being unable to support all three daughters through the sport.
Yadav shot into the limelight, winning a bronze medal at the Asian Junior Championships prior to her Glasgow bronze. She had moved to a higher weight category for the Commonwealth weightlifting Championships, winning gold in 2015 and bagging silver in 2017.
At the World Championships in Anaheim, she finished 9th with a lift of 218 kg. She bettered that at Gold Coast, lifting 222 kg, with a 100 kg in the snatch, followed by a 122 kg in the clean and jerk