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Mirabai lifts first gold for India in C�Wealth Games

By Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI, April 5 - Star weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, who works in the Northeast Frontier Railway headquarters at Maligaon here, won the first gold for India today at the 21st edition of the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast, Australia with a power-packed performance in the women�s 48 kg category.

The Manipuri powerhouse � a champion in last year�s World Championships held in the USA, left the competition far behind by setting Games and Commonwealth records in the snatch, clean and jerk as well as the total. She registered 86 kg in the snatch and 110 kg in clean and jerk for a total of 196 kg.

Such was her dominance that she smashed records in each of her six lifts in the competition. It saw creation of 15 new records � nine Commonwealth Games records and three Commonwealth records and three national records.

Chanu began on a rousing note by breaking the existing Games record with a lift of 80 kg. She went on to break the record another two times with successful attempts of 84 kg and 86 kg, the latter being her new personal best.

She also started the clean and jerk session in a similar fashion, lifting 103 kg in her first attempt to take the lead straightaway. While another successful lift of 107 kg consolidated her position, she went on to post a new personal best with 110 kg in her third and final attempt to close off a dominating performance.

The reigning world champion thus wiped out the previous Games record of 175 kg set by Nigeria�s Augustina Nwaokolo at the 2010 edition by a considerable distance. Chanu�s previous personal best was 194 kg which she had set during her title-winning run at the World Championships in 2017.

At Gold Coast, Marie Hanitra of Mauritius finished a distant second with a total lift of 170 kg, while Dinusha Gomes of Sri Lanka took the bronze with an effort of 155 kg.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today congratulated Chanu for winning India�s first medal in the Commonwealth Games. �Congratulations to Saikhom Mirabai Chanu for winning India�s first gold at the #GC2018 games and breaking three CWG records. India is delighted by these achievements,� he tweeted.

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