Raja Muthupandi made it a perfect day for India in weightlifting as he won silver in the men’s 65 kg category in Glasgow on Sunday at the Commonwealth Games 2026. Muthupandi lifted a total of 286 kgs across both snatch and clean and jerk rounds to beat off competition and secure the second spot behind Malaysia’s Aznil Bin Bidin Muhamed, who broke the games record to claim gold.
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Bidin lifted a total of 299 and looked to be well ahead of the competition in both rounds, but Muthupandi did enough to keep the Malaysian on his toes. Papua New Guinea’s Morea Baru claimed the bronze medal and fought with Muthupandi till the very end for silver, but faltered with his final lift in the clean and jerk round. Muthupandi’s win follows Mirabai Chanu’s gold and Rishikanta Singh’s silver earlier in the day as India’s tally extended to four in weightlifting and para weightlifting combined.
This completed a sensational turnaround for Muthupandi, who suffered through a lot of setbacks and heartbreaks over the past few years.
RAJA’S TURNAROUND
Raja Muthupandi’s journey to the top has been built on years of steady progress and resilience. He first made his mark by winning gold and silver at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth and Junior Championships before adding national titles in 2019 and 2022 to establish himself as one of India’s most promising weightlifters.
His rise was briefly derailed at the 2019 Commonwealth Championships, where he suffered a ligament tear in his right elbow during the snatch. The injury required surgery and kept him away from competition for an extended period. Although he returned at the 2021 National Championships with a third-place finish, he narrowly missed out on a place in India’s squad for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Refusing to let the setback define him, Raja came back stronger. In 2024, he broke the national record in the 61kg category with a total lift of 289kg. A year later, he claimed silver at the Commonwealth Championships with a lift of 296kg before setting a personal best of 299kg (130kg snatch and 169kg clean and jerk) at the World Championships in Forde, Norway. His ninth-place finish in the 65kg category reinforced his credentials as one of India’s leading male lifters and a strong prospect for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games marked another milestone in his career as he finally made his long-awaited debut on the biggest stage in Commonwealth sport after years of battling injury and enduring near misses.
On Sunday, it seemed like a straight shootout between Muthupandi and Bidin as they had set themselves up with the biggest weights in both snatch and clean and jerk.
Much like Mirabai, earlier on in the day, Muthupandi started off with a stutter in his first attempt in the snatch round. However, the resilience from him was shinning bright throughout his effort as he came back stronger and lifted 126 kgs.
By then Baru, Sri Lanka’s Krunarathna and Nigeria’s Agboro amped up the pressure as Bidin had raced into an early lead. He was able to execute lifts of 130 and 133 to be the outright leader and favourite for the title.
The clean and jerk round was set for some big drama at the end, with Krunarathna and Agboro lifting 151 and 157 and aiming to push the bar even higher. Muthupandi’s attempt with 158 didn’t pan out well, but he decided to raise it up to 160 to push ahead of the rest. This broke the games record at that time, but it didn’t last for long.
By then, Bidin had almost secured gold with a lift of 162 and then 166 to complete a personal three-peat. He forced Muthupandi to go for a 170 kg lift, which he was unable to complete. India will be looking to add to the medal tally on Monday when Bindyarani Devi, Valluri Ajaya Babu and Gyaneshwari Yadav will be in action.
– Ends
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