India’s Harjinder Kaur settled for silver after finishing second in the women’s 69kg weightlifting competition at the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday despite setting Games records in both the snatch and clean and jerk.
The 29-year-old, who had won a bronze medal at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games in the higher 71kg category, delivered one of the finest performances of her career to earn India their seventh medal from the sport.
She rewrote the Games record in the snatch
twice, first clearing 99kg before improving it to 101kg with a confident final attempt.
Harjinder then continued her record-breaking spree in the clean and jerk, successfully lifting 123kg before raising the bar to 126kg, taking her overall total to 227kg.
Despite her outstanding effort, Harjinder was up against an exceptional performance from Canada’s Charlotte Simoneau, who proved to be in a class of her own.
The Canadian shattered the Games records in every category, hoisting a massive 108kg in the snatch and 132kg in the clean and jerk for a combined total of 240kg — also a new Commonwealth Games record — to finish 13kg clear of the Indian.
