Birmingham: After failing to lift 180 kg in his final Clean and Jerk attempt, the Indian weightlifter Ajay Singh had a heartbreaking finish at fourth position in the Men's 81 kg final at the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham on Monday despite being in a medal position till the very last stages.
Ajay Singh finished the event with a combined lift of 319 kg, which consists of 143 kg in Snatch category and 176 kg in Clean and Jerk. England's Chris Murray took home the gold medal with a CWG record-breaking 325 kg combined lift. Australia's Kyle Bruce got the silver medal with a combined lift of 323 kg while Nicholas Vachon of Canada received a bronze medal for his combined lift of 320 kg.
Ajay Singh lifted an impressive 137 kg in his first Snatch attempt, which immediately pushed him to the top of the leaderboard. In his second attempt, he delivered better with a lift of 140 kg. Singh ended the Snatch event with an impressive 143 kg lift in his final attempt. England's Chris Murray was in the lead at the end of Snatch event with 144 kg. While Singh and Australia's Kyle Bruce had the best lifts of 143 kg each as well.
Singh had an edge over Kyle since the Aussie had failed in two of his attempts while the Indian's all three attempts were successful. With Singh in contention, proceedings moved to the Clean and Jerk event. Jamaica's Omarie Mears was the first one to make his C&J attempt, lifting 141 kg in his first attempt and gaining a combined lead of 267 kg. He bettered himself in his second attempt, lifting 147 kg, which pushed his combined lift to 273 kg.
Ajay Singh lifted a whooping 172 kg in his first C&J attempt. This gave him a combined lift of 315 kg. He was in the Gold medal position for a while. But then came Murray, who lifted 174 kg in his first attempt and had a combined lift of 318 kg. Below Murray was Bruce, who lifted an impressive 175 kg in his first attempt and had a combined lift of 318 kg. This pushed down Singh to third position.
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In his second attempt, the Indian lifted an impressive 176 kg. This gave him a combined lift of 319 kg, just one ahead of Murray and Bruce. Murray then came forward with a lift of 178 kg in his second attempt, which pushed his combined lift to 322 kg. Bruce lifted a stupendous 180 kg in his second attempt to increase his combined lift to 323 kg.
Singh was at this point still in medal position, but needed to pull out something big to strengthen his claim for gold. Unfortunately, he failed to lift 180 kg in his final attempt, ending with a combined lift of 319 kg. But Canada's Vachon came into contention with an impressive 180 kg in his second attempt, which gave him the combined lift of 320 kg. Singh fell one kg short of getting the third position for a Bronze medal and had to settle with a fourth-place finish.
ANI
