Muthu strikes a bonanza

BANGALORE, June 1 T. amil Nadu's T. Muthu was the first beneficiary of the bonanzas offered at these Games, as he went on a record shatteri...

BANGALORE, June 1 T. amil Nadu’s T. Muthu was the first beneficiary of the bonanzas offered at these Games, as he went on a record shattering spree in the men’s 54 kg category event on the first day of the weightlifting competitions. His record efforts in all three segments meant he was richer by Rs 50,000, put up by Videocon for anyone breaking more than one record.

Earlier, Kunjarani Devi’s absence robbed the competition of interest in the women’s 46 kg category. But for the 16-year-old Madhura Sinhasane of Maharashtra it was perfect oppurtnunity to make a mark at the National level. In the process she gave her state the first gold of the Games by winning gold. Despite assurances that Kunjarani would take part, she is believed to have stayed away following a directive from the Federation, did not want lifters selected for the Asians to take part.

Though way off the Games mark held by Kunjarani, Madhura, a 12th standard student of Walchand Junior College, Sangli, gave a good account of herself, with clean lifts. Her snatch effort of 60kg and of 77.5kg in jerk, totalled far less than Kunjurani’s three-year-old 162.5 kgs (90 kg and 72.5 kgs), set in Pune in 1994. Tikina Gopal (57.5 and 72.5) and Inderjit Kaur (55 and 65) were placed second and third.

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In the men’s event, Muthu began impeccably, with a 100 kg lift in snatch and in the third attempt equalled his own meet record, with 107.5 kg. In a field of 12, only the three medallists, including Srikanth Mudi (West Bengal) and A Karutha Pandian (Maharashtra) touched the 100 kg mark.

Â Â In clean and jerk, there was stiff competition as Orissa’s Lulu Sahu equalled the meet record with a 127.5 lift, in his second try. But Muthu rewrote the mark within minutes raising it to 130 kgs. Sahu levelled with Muthu with 130 on his last try, only to see Muthu raise it to 132.5 kg on his third and final attempt and with it take his total to 240.0kgs.

Karutha Pandian and Srikant Mudi had similar totals of 225 kgs, but the former got silver on body weight.