P Gururaja opens India's account at the Commonwealth Games by winning silver medal

P Gururaja opens India's account at the Commonwealth Games by winning silver medal Follow @merinews

05 April, 2018

It is indeed an extraordinary tale of a man coming from a humble background. Meet P Gururaja, the son of a truck driver and an employee of the Indian Air Force. He had recently been conferred with the Eklavya award by the Karnataka government.

Indian weightlifter Gururaja, who hails from Udipi district of Karnataka, on Thursday, opened India's account at the Commonwealth Games 2018 by bagging a silver medal in the men's 56 kg category with a total lift of 249 kg.

He lifted 111 kg in snatch and 138 kg in clean and jerk to finish second in the event, winning a silver medal for his country at Gold Coast in Brisbane, Australia.

At first, things didn't seem easy for Gururaja as he failed to lift the weight of 138 kg in the first two attempts. However, he did manage to lift the weight successfully in his final attempt.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Gururaja said, After I failed the first two attempts, my coach reminded me how much my life depends on this. I remembered my family and my country.

The gold medal was won by Malaysia's Izahar Ahmad who lifted a total weight of 261 kg while the bronze went to Sri Lanka's Chaturanga Lakmal.