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CWG 2022: Vikas Thakur wins silver in 96kg weightlifting

Vikas Thakur poses with his silver medal in the Men's 96kg weightlifting during the 2022 Commonwealth Games Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Vikas Thakur became the eighth weightlifter to medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games as he won the silver medal in the men's 96kg in Birmingham on Tuesday.

Vikas secured a total lift of 346kgs [155kg + 191kg] to win India's second medal of the day after the women's team won gold in the women's fours final.

This is Vikas' third Commonwealth Games medal - he won silver in the men's 85kg in 2014 and then won bronze in the 94kg in 2018.

Vikas had three clean lifts in snatch - 149kg, 153kg and 155kg - to remain tied in the third spot with Fiji's Taniela Rainibogi. Samoa's Don Opologe was miles ahead of his competitors as he lifted 171kg, a new Games record, to top the standings.

England's Cyrille Tchatchet II was placed second with a best lift of 158kg, but he failed all three of his clean and jerk attempts to pave the way to the podium for Vikas.

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Vikas began his clean and jerk with a smooth 187kg lift in his first attempt. His second lift was accompanied by a "Jai Bajrangbali" chant from the crowd and he successfully lifted 191kg and broke into a celebration.

He opted to go for a new personal best of 198kg in his final attempt but couldn't clear the lift. However, it had little bearing on the overall result as he held onto the silver medal.

Opologe managed a humongous lift of 210kg to win the gold [total weight of 381kgs], while Rainibogi won bronze with a cumulative total of 343kg [155kg+188kg].

Seven Indian weightlifters have already medalled at the Games - Mirabai Chanu [49kg], Jeremy Lalrinnunga [67kg] and Achinta Sheuli [73kg] won gold, Sanket Sargar [55kg], Bindyarani Devi [55kg] won silver, while P. Gururaja [61kg] and Harjinder Kaur [71kg] won bronze.

Speaking after the event, Vikas Thakur explained what inspired him, saying "I would finish my homework early and to ensure that I don't get into bad company, my parents put me to sport. I tried athletics, boxing and finally weightlifting at the Ludhiana Club under CWG 1990 medallist Parvesh Chander Sharma." It was K Ravi Kumar, who made headlines at the 2010 CWG in Delhi with his record-breaking lift in 69kg, who inspired Yadav.

"Though I started out in 2002, Ravi Kumar's performance at Delhi inspired us all. It brought on that passion and there was no looking back," he said.