Commonwealth Games 2022 weightlifting: Harjinder Kaur wins bronze medal after clean and jerk drama

Indian weightlifter Harjinder Kaur won the bronze medal in the women’s 71kg category at the Commonwealth Games 2022 on Monday after a dramatic finish to the event.

Harjinder Kaur, a former Commonwealth Championships silver medallist, logged 212kg (snatch – 93kg; clean and jerk – 119kg) to sneak into the podium against all odds.

Harjinder Kaur failed with her first snatch attempt at 90kg, but logged successful lifts of 90kg and 93kg in her next two efforts to keep herself in the running for a medal.

In the clean and jerk section, Harjinder Kaur logged 113kg, 116kg and 119kg lifts, respectively, in her three attempts but saw herself outdone by Canadian Alexis Ashworth, who produced a 123kg best attempt to pip the Indian on the leaderboard.

With England’s Sarah Davies, a silver medallist from last year’s world championships, and Nigeria’s Joy Ogbonne Ezze, a former African champion, expected to fight for the gold and silver, it seemed like Ashworth would settle for bronze and Harjinder would miss out.

However, Ogbonne failed to log a valid clean and jerk in any of her three attempts and failed to rank, which lifted the Indian up to the bronze medal position.

Sarah Davies also added to the drama by failing her first lift but succeeded in her second attempt to win the gold. The Englishwoman registered a total lift of 229kg (113kg+126kg) - the new Commonwealth Games record in the category. Ashworth lifted a total of 214kg (91kg+213kg) to claim the silver.

Earlier in the day, India’s Ajay Singh had no such rub of the green as he fell just one kilogram short of a bronze medal in the men’s 81kg.

Ajay Singh, a two-time Commonwealth Championships gold medallist, lifted a total of 319kg (snatch – 143kg; clean and jerk – 176kg) at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Solihull to finish fourth in his category.