Worth their weight in gold
Ivninderpal Singh

AFTER shooting, two disciplines which contributed prominently to India’s gold medal haul at the Commonwealth Games were weightlifting and table tennis. Weightlifters lifted three gold, while the paddlers added two. In total, weightlifters added nine medals (three gold, five silver and a bronze) to India’s kitty and paddlers contributed three (two gold and a bronze).

The lifters fell way short of the total number of medals won by them at Manchester in 2002, where their tally was 27 — 11 gold, nine silver, seven bronze. However, they still finished second behind Australia in weightlifting this time with 11 medals — four gold, three silver and four bronze.

New medal rules in weightlifting and not the performance of our lifters severely affected India’s haul as the international federation has done away with three medals each in snatch, clean and jerk, and total. This time, medals were awarded only for the best total lift in each weight category, resulting in reduction of the number of medals won by the Indians.

At Melbourne, women lifters won all the gold medals. Kunjarani Devi had begun the golden journey, with Renu Bala Yumnam Chanu and Geeta Rani following suit.

Veteran Kunjarani won India’s first gold medal of the 2006 Commonwealth Games, setting a new clean-and-jerk record in the 48 kg division. Chanu claimed India’s second gold in the 58 kg category, while Geeta clinched the yellow metal in the plus-75 kg category with a record-breaking lift.

Among others, Arun Murugesan was rather unlucky to have missed out on the gold after a tie for the top honours. He missed the 62 kg category gold on body weight to a Sri Lankan lifter and had to settle for the silver.

India’s other silver medallists in weightlifting were Vicky Batta (56 kg), Mohd Zakir Asadullah (77 kg), Laishram Monica Devi (69 kg) and Simple Kaur (plus-75 kg), while Sudhir Kumar Chitradurga claimed a bronze medal.

Two lifters, Tajinder Singh and Edwin Raju, returning with positive dope tests, were the only negative aspect of the weightlifters at the games.

In table tennis, India improved its Manchester tally, where paddlers won three bronze (all by men in singles, doubles and team event). At Melbourne the men won top honours and even the women had their slice of victory.

Achanta Sharath Kamal had his moments of glory as he wrote a golden chapter for Indian table tennis, becoming the country’s first individual gold medal-winning paddler at the Commonwealth Games. The 24-year-old Indian Oil Corporation employee stunned defending champion Segun Toriola of Nigeria in straight games in the semifinal and won a gruelling seven-game final against local favourite William Henzell.

Sharath was also the architect of India’s first ever team gold in the games with Soumydeep Roy and Subhajit Saha who helped the side win the final despite trailing 0-2. Women paddlers also did the country proud by winning their first ever games bronze medal, thanks to Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak.

Akhil Kumar became the second Indian boxer after Muhammad Ali Qamar to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal.

This success of weightlifters, paddlers and to some extent boxers at Melbourne is just the beginning and they have a long way to go beginning from Doha later this year to Beijing in 2008 and then at home turf at New Delhi in 2010. Let’s hope they are consistent in their performance and continue winning laurels for the country.

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