CWG 2018: Flawless Mirabai Chanu bags India’s first gold medal with a record show
The 23-year-old reigning World Champion lifted 26 kgs more from her second-placed opponent.
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World champion Mirabai Chanu lived up to the pre-tournament favourite status by bagging India’s first gold in the 2018 Commonwealth Games with a new Commonwealth record of 196 kg in the women’s 48 kg category.
The second placed Marie Hanrita Ranaivosoa of Mauritius was almost 26 kg behind at 170 while Sri Lanka’s Dinusha Gomes bagged the bronze with a total lift of 155 kg.
Chanu was so dominant in the field of 11 lifters that she started her first attempt in both snatch and clean and jerk after all the other competitors were done with all their three attempts.
The 23-year-old Indian started her snatch attempt with a Games record of 80 kg and improved it to 86 kg by her third attempt to take a 10 kg lead over her nearest competitor going into clean and jerk.
And she was assured of the gold medal following her very first attempt of 103 kg in clean and jerk to achieve an aggregate total of 193.
Having assured herself of the gold, Chanu went for the a personal best in clean and jerk and successfully lifted 110 kg to finish with a bang.
Earlier, Gururaj had opened India’s account on the medal tally with a silver medal in the men’s 56 kg event with a total lift of 249 kg.
Read about Gururaj’s journey to the silver medal here.