Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships: Bindyarani bags silver; 17-year-old Koyel sets new youth record

Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], August 27 (ANI): India's Bindyarani Devi, Muthupandi Raja and Sneha Soren dazzled at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships 2025 in Ahmedabad by clinching silver medals on Tuesday. However, the headlines belonged to 17-year-old Koyel Bar, who stole the spotlight by breaking the youth world records, according to Olympics.com.
Bindyarani, who contested in the women's 58kg, lifted 206kg (91kg snatch+115kg clean and jerk) to bag the silver medal. She progressed through 85kg, 88kg, and 91kg in snatch and cleared 110kg and 115kg in clean and jerk. With the stakes running high, she fumbled in her final 122kg attempt and settled for the second spot while Australia's Kiana Elliott took gold with 212kg (100kg+112kg).
Bindyarani is a silver medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in the 55kg division. She is also a former Commonwealth champion, having won gold in the 2019 and silver in the 2021 editions.
Koyel Bar left the world stunned with her record-shattering performance in the women's 53kg youth category. She lifted a total of 192kg (85kg + 107kg), setting new youth world records in total and clean and jerk. The teenager proved to be a promising talent, as she lifted more than her competitor, Sneha, in the senior category to clinch the youth and junior titles in the women's 53 kg category.
Coming to the men's category, Muthupandi Raja came agonisingly close to the gold medal in the 65kg event, finishing with 296kg (128kg+168kg), just shy of Malaysia's Muhamad Aznil Bin Bidin, who lifted 297kg (125kg+172kg) to take the gold medal. Papua New Guinea's Moria Baru followed in the third spot to claim the bronze with 292kg (127kg+165kg).
In the senior women's 53kg, Nigeria's Omolola Onome Didih took the spot at the top of the podium with a lift of 197kg (90kg+107kg) to return home with gold. In comparison, India's Sneha Soren lifted 185kg (81kg+104kg) to claim silver.
The 30th edition of the tournament features over 300 lifters from 31 nations. Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Mirabai Chanu kicked off India's campaign with a gold medal in the women's 48kg category on Monday, and secured the qualification for the following year's Commonwealth Games. (ANI)