Bangalore, June 2: Delhi's Asha Adak won the gold in the women's 50 kg class with a combined lift of 150 kg, but failed to erase the Games record of elder sister Chaya (160 kg) at the Guru Nanak Bhavan today.

Close on Asha's heels was Gitanjali Devi of Manipur, who won a silver with a combined lift of 147.5 kg. Orissa's Prasmita Mangaraj got the bronze by virtue of her lesser body weight as compared to Manipur's Tombi Sena Devi, as both had an identical lift of 145 kg.

In the men's section, 23-year-old Ganapathy Gnanasekharan gave Tamil Nadu their second successive gold when he won the men's 59 kg category with a combined lift of 252.5 kg (112.5 + 140). The second and third positions also went to lifters from Tamil Nadu, but they represented other units.

The clean and jerk part of the men's event brought some cheer to the packed Guru Nanak Hall, after a disappointing performance in the snatch by the lifters, in which Ganesh managed the best lift of 112.5 kg.

Both Gnanasekaharan and Dharmarajan Wilson, another TN lifter, representing the Services, had a clean and jerk lift of 140 kg, though the latter made an unsuccessful bid of 147.5 kg to dislodge the eventual winner (owing to lesser body weight) in his last attempt. Dharmarajan's poor score of 105 kg in snatch eventually let him down in the final analysis. The Indian Navy man began with the same score but could not raise his lift beyond that in his next two attempts. His final tally was 245 kg.

Ponnuswamy Rangaswamy, the 33-year-old Olympian attached to Maharashtra, overcame initial hiccups to stage a comeback, which put him in the third spot. Although two others, Orissa's Krishna Sahu and Tamil Nadu youngster M Arun, also had the same combined total of 240 kg, Rangaswamy's lesser body weight ensured him a bronze.

In fact, Rangaswamy was on the verge of being eliminated, having failed in his first two attempts in jerk, at 135 kg. However, cheered on by a sportive crowd, the veteran lifted the weight in his final attempt.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.