Weightlifting: Rakhi Halder Pockets Gold Medal In Nationals With a Lift Of 210 Kg

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.

Indian weightlifter Rakhi Halder pocketed the gold medal in the 64 kg category with a lift of 210 kg in the 72nd Men’s and 35th Senior Women’s National Weightlifting Championships in Kolkata on Wednesday.

Halder was way short of her personal best, but she still managed to clinch gold.

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).

On Tuesday, Mirabai Chanu, the former weightlifting world champion, went past her national record by two kilograms as she lifted a total of 203 kgs to win the 49kg gold.

The 25-year-old Manipuri lifted 87 kg in snatch in her second attempt and 115 kg in clean and jerk for a total of 203 kg.

Tuesday’s effort has put her in fourth place in world rankings behind Chinese Jiang Huihua (212kg) and Hou Zhihui (211kg) and Korean Ri Song Gum (209kg).

Mirabai’s previous best of 201kg had come at the World Championship in Thailand in September last year, where she had finished fourth.