Sambo Lapung breaks Vikas Thakur’s three-year-old clean and jerk record

Arunachal Pradesh’s Sambo Lapung conquered his love for fast food to break Services’ lifter Vikas Thakur’s three-year-old clean and jerk record and claim the men’s 96kg gold medal at the weightlifting arena of the National Games here on Monday.

Twentyfive-year-old Sambo achieved 148kg in snatch and 198kg in his final clean jerk attempt, a kg more than Vikas’ previous record, to total 346kg and beat Services’ Jagdish by 15kg.

A boxer, who took to lifting to avoid punishment from his boxing coach, Sambo’s performance was 10kg more than that of his own gold medal winning aggregate of 336kg in the National championships in Bhubaneswar in March.

“I came here to compete with myself and had one eye on the record,” Sambo said.

Sambo’s coach Yukar Sibi said he was strict about the lifter’s diet. “Sambo is a lover of fast food and was disqualified from the 2021 Nationals for being overweight. So I kept an eye on his diet. We had been targeting this record for some time,” said Sibi.

Lovepreet Singh gold medal winner in the 109kg men’s weightlifting at the 36th National Games 2022 in Gandhinagar on Monday, October 3, 2022.
| Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Lovepreet Singh aggregated 338kg, way below his showing of 355kg in Birmingham, to ensure the 109kg gold before skipping his last two attempts.

The results: Men: 96kg: 1. Sambo Lapung snatch 148kg, clean and jerk 198kg (NR, old 197, Vikas Thakur, 2019), total 346kg; 2. Jagdish (SSCB) 176kg, 187kg, 331kg; 3. Parveen (Har) 141kg, 171kg, 312kg.

109kg: 1. Lovepreet Singh (SSCB) 158kg, 180kg, 338kg; 2. Vishal Solanki (Har) 147kg, 176kg, 323kg; 3. Naveen (Har) 145kg, 177kg, 322kg.

Women: 87kg: 1. Komal Wakale (Mah) 94kg, 116kg, 210kg; 2. B.N. Usha (Kar) 95kg, 114kg, 209kg, 3. T. Satya Jyothi (AP) 90kg, 111kg, 201kg.