Dhanush lifts gold with a record-breaking effort

Dhanush during his record lift in the clean & jerk section in the National (junior, youth & senior) weightlifting championships at Nagercoil on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: K. Keerthivasan

Son of a carpenter in Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu’s 16-year-old L. Dhanush bagged a gold medal in the youth men’s 49Kg section of the National (junior, youth & senior) weightlifting championships at the Ponjesly College of Engineering here on Thursday.

Dhanush, who did a best of 81 kg in snatch, went on to create a National record in clean & jerk (110 kg) for a total of 191 kg that pushed State-mate V. Kishore (188) to the second position. Dhanush rewrote the record set by Bhaktram Desti (108).

Earlier, in the first event of the day, Odisha’s Jyoshna Sabar finished first in the youth women’s 40Kg with a 53 in snatch and 71 in clean & jerk for a total of 124 ahead ahead of Maharashtra’s Vinatai Aher (57, 66, 123).

Dhanush with the men’s 49kg gold medal in the National (junior, youth & senior) weightlifting championships at Nagercoil.
| Photo Credit:
K. Keerthivasan

“Now I have the National record in both snatch— 88 kg that I did in Khelo India Youth Games early this year — and clean & jerk now. I am a bit disappointed that I couldn’t do well in the total. I had a some elbow issues , but I am happy,” Dhanush told The Hindu.

Later in the day, RSPB’s Komal Kohar and Asmita Dhone of Maharashtra created a National record in their respective categories.

Komal rewrote the record in junior and women’s 45 kg snatch with a lift of 74 kg, while Asmita scripted a new mark in youth women’s 45 kg clean & jerk with a lift of 82 kg.

The results:

Youth: Men: 49Kg: 1. L. Dhanush (TN) (snatch 81, clean & jerk 110, total 191); 2. V. Kishore (TN) (84, 104, 188); 3. Gautam Kumar (Bih) (75, 102, 177).

Women: 40 Kg: 1. Jyoshna Sabar (Odi) (53, 71, 124); 2. Vinatai Aher (Mah) (57, 66, 123) 3. Priteeesmita Bhoi (Odi) 50, 63, 113).