PUNE: Promising young weightlifter Harshada Garud, 18, clinched gold medal in the Asian Youth & Junior weightlifting championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Monday.
The Pune lifter, who had created history by becoming first Indian to win gold at the World Junior Championships in May this year, lifted a total of 157kg (69+88kg) to clinch the junior gold in the 45kg weight category.
The Khelo India champion improved on her personal best total of 153kg achieved at the Worlds by four kilos but could not better her snatch lift on Monday. She had lifted 70+88kg (snatch and clean & jerk) at Worlds.
There were seven participants in Harshada's event and none from China.
Harshada, who trains at Sports Authority of India centre in Patiala, said she was happy with her lifts, but would like to better the total in the coming months.
"I have been lifting 74kg during training, but I lifted 69kg here. I would like to take it to 75kg in snatch and 95kg in clean & jerk," Harshada told TOI from Tashkent. She will have to lift the bar and a lot more weight once she graduates to the senior category.
When asked about her first failed attempt in the snatch category, she said, "I didn't know what happened, but I couldn't lift at all. However, I wasn't worried as I have been lifting over 70kg easily."
She said she wasn't doing the calculations during the lifts. "My coaches were doing that. I lifted what they asked me to lift," she said.
The Indian started her lifts on a rather disappointing note as she failed to clear 66kg in her first snatch attempt. She looked puzzled and tried to process the outcome. She smiled at her coach and came back to lift 66kg with ease.
In the third snatch attempt, Harshada lifted 88kg - her personal best - with ease and moved to the second spot in the category behind the Philippines' Rose Jean Ramos.
Harshada overtook her rival through clean & jerk. She started with a successful 81kg and followed that with 85kg and 88kg. The Indian was ranked first in the clean & jerk. Vietnam's Nguyen Thi Thu Hoai (84kg) and Rose (83kg) followed her.
Rose bagged the silver with a total of 153kg and Nguyen (152kg) took the bronze.
Another Indian, Soumya Dalvi, bagged the bronze in the 45kg youth category after lifting 145kg (63kg + 82kg) to make the podium.
