Indian Weightlifter becomes first to clinch Gold medal in IWF Junior World Championship 2022

Itanagar: On Monday, Harshada Sharad Garud became India's first gold medalist in weightlifting at the IWF Junior World Championships in Heraklion Greece which began on Monday.

On the first day of the championship, she lifted 70 kg in snatch and 83 kg in clean and jerk for a total of 153 kgs to win the yellow metal and become the new world champion in the 45 kg body weight category, according to Indian team manager Abraham K Techi.

Garud placed first in the snatch with a 70 kg effort, and she was second in the clean and jerk with an 85 kg effort, behind Turkey's Bektas Cansu (85 kg), who won silver with a total lift of 150 kgs (65 kgs + 85 kgs).

After Meerabai Chanu, the only second Indian (after Karnam Malleswari) to win gold in the World Weightlifting Championships-2017 in Los Angeles, USA by lifting a new world record of 194kg (85 snatch and 109 C&J) in the women's 48kg category, Sharad accomplished this feat to raise the Indian flag high. Malleshwari won the gold in 1994 and 1995, while Chanu, from Imphal, was a former Olympic bronze medalist.

Madhavan Thirumurugan, Muna Nayak, Anjali Patel, Gyaneshwari Yadav, Martina Devi Maibam, Shrabani Das, and Rithika Venkatesan are among the other Indian lifters who left for Greece on April 29th, along with four coaches. Lifters from many countries are competing in the Championship, including Turkey, Moldova, and Spain, according to Techi.

Techi, who is also the president of the Arunachal Weightlifting Association, has previously led Indian weightlifting contingents to the World Junior Weightlifting Championships-2011 in Malaysia, the IWF Junior World Championship-2015 in Wroclaw, Poland, the IWF World Championship-2017 in the United States, Asian Youth Olympic qualification (boys and girls), the 17th Asian Junior Women's and 24th Asian Junior Men's Weightlifting Championship-2010 in Uzbekistan, and the Jakarta

When asked if more medals could be expected, Techi smiled and said "You are aware that Indian athletes are very talented, and the Championship only started yesterday." Keep an eye out for more good news."