Nowhere close to complete fitness and without a fulltime physio to care for their niggles, Indian weightlifters remained leaps ahead of their Commonwealth Games competitors, taking their gold medal tally to four through Sathish Sivalingam (77kg) and Venkat Rahul Ragala (85kg) here today.
After Mirabai Chanu (48kg) and Sanjita Chanu (53kg), Sathish and Rahul continued India's gold-collecting spree at the Games. The yellow metal count is already one more than the previous 2014 edition with two more days of competition left.
Add to this, P Gururaja (56kg) and Deepak Lather's (69kg) silver and bronze respectively and it is turning out to be quite a performance.
Today, Sathish, the defending champion, and Rahul overcame the pain barrier posed by their respective unhealed thigh and knee injuries to claim gold medals.
The 25-year-old Sathish lifted a total of 317kg (114kg+173kg) and was so ahead of competition that he forfeited his final clean and jerk lift. Rahul, on the other hand, had to wait right till the end owing to close competition from eventual silver-medallist Samoa's Don Opeloge.
Both the boxers were nursing niggles but their physio Aakrant Saxena did not have access to them in the competition area because of the accreditation blunder that hasn't given the requisite access. It's a blunder for which neither the national federation nor the IOA is willing to claim the blame.
"I had no hopes of winning a medal after I injured my thighs during the national championships while attempting 194kg in clean and jerk. It's a quadriceps problem, even now I am competing at less than ideal fitness but I am glad that was enough to get me a gold," Sathish said after his medal ceremony during which he was accorded a warm applause by the packed arena.
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The 21-year-old Rahul, who is a Commonwealth Championships gold-medallist, lifted a total of 338kg (151kg+187kg) to finish on top.
"I had been weakened by a knee injury during the Commonwealth Championships last year. But the coaches supported me immensely to get this medal. I haven't been able to train that well," he said.
"I am still not fully recovered," said the lifter who wears his later mother's anklet around his forehead as a goodluck charm.
"I put this on after she passed away two years ago. I get inspired by
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