Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, the golden girl of Indian weightlifting showed why she is called that as she clinched the first Gold medal for the country on Sunday, July 26, at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, currently underway in Glasgow, Scotland.
Chanu, competing in the women’s 48kg category of the weightlifting event, created the Games record in the snatch event by lifting 85 kg.
But she wasn’t done; she went on to achieve the rare triple of setting Snatch, Clean and Jerk and Total Games records in her weight category by lifting 105 kg in Clean and Jerk and a total of 189 kg.
There was no competition for the Indian as the silver medalist from Nigeria and bronze medalist from Malaysia were left far behind, lifting combined weight totals of 168 and 167 kg respectively.
Chanu enters serial Gold winners’ club of CWG
By winning her third consecutive Commonwealth Games gold and fourth consecutive medal overall, she joined Indian wrestlers Sushil Kumar (men’s) and Vinesh Phogat as the only three Indians to win Gold at three consecutive editions of the Games.
While Sushil won Gold at the 2010 Delhi, 2014 Glasgow and 2018 Gold Coast games, Vinesh achieved the treble by clinching the yellow metal at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Birmingham editions.
India’s medal tally at CWG 2026
With that Gold from Chanu, India has now won three medals at the quadrennial event. Prior to Chanu, Jhandu Kumar won bronze in Powerlifting and Rishikanta Singh won a silver in the men’s 60-kg weightlifting.