Indian lifter Rakhi Halder was way short of her personal best but she still managed to clinch the 64kg gold in the 72nd Men’s and 35th Senior Women’s National Weightlifting Championships in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Ranked 19th in the Olympic qualifiers list, Rakhi lifted 93 kg in snatch and 117 kg in clean and jerk on way to her gold medal with a total of 210kg, still 10kg ahead of her nearest rival Harjinder Kaul of Chandigarh.
The Bengal lifter, a Railways employee, had produced a personal best of 218 kg (95kg in snatch + 123 kg in clean and jerk) at the Qatar International Cup last year where she won the bronze medal.
At the Commonwealth Championship in June 2019, Rakhi had clinched the gold with a total lift of 214-kg (94+120).
Results:
Men’s 81kg: Papul Changmai (SSCB) (145+172=317); Amarjit Guru (RSPB) (137+172=309); U Sivaprakash (Puducherry) (136+171=307).
Men’s 89kg: Sambo Lapung (SSCB) (145+188=333); RV Rahul (RSPB) (144+179=323); Ram Karan Prajapati (Uttarakhand) (138+176=314).
Women’s 64kg: Rakhi Halder (RSPB) (93+117=210); Harjinder Kaur (Chandigarh) (90+110=200); K Roshilata Devi (Manipur) (80+107=187).