Sonipat

Para weightlifter Sudhir Lath's parents and guardians have expressed happiness after his gold medal win in CWG 2022. Seven-time National Gold medalist Sudhir Lath on Thursday won an international gold medal in Commonwealth Games in the heavyweight category in Birmingham, England. Sudhir was born and brought up in a farmer family in village Lath, Sonipat.

At the age of 5, a leg problem resulted in him being handicapped for the rest of his life. He started para lifting at an age of 13 to stay fit which later became a part of his life. Para player Virendra Dhankhar became an inspiration for him to pursue para lifting and within just two years of training, he was able to clench a gold medal in a national-level competition.

Sudhir went on to grab a gold medal in the next seven consecutive years and won the award of Strongman of India in 2021 and 2022 as well.

On the occasion of him winning a gold medal, his mother and uncle shared their happiness. "It is a very happy occasion that our child Sudhir has won a medal for the country. May God be on his side like this in the future too and he does good in his future endeavours," said Sumitra, Sudhir's mother.

"We will give him a good reception in Delhi when he returns. He has glorified the name of the district, the state, and the whole country. It is a very prestigious occasion," his uncle Suraj Bhan added.

Sudhir clinched the gold medal in the Men's Heavyweight final with the best weight of 212kg on Thursday.

Sudhir won India's first gold in Para-Powerlifting at Commonwealth Games. He defeated Nigeria's Ikechukwu Obichukwu (133.6 points) by 0.9 points as his final score read a Games record 134.5 points for the gold.

Sudhir started his event with a successful attempt of a 208kg lift without breaking a sweat, scoring 132.0 points. In his second attempt, he improved his last attempt and lifted 212kg successfully, scoring 134.5 points.

In the third and last attempt, he failed to lift 217kg but clinched the gold medal with 134.5 points. Earlier, Indian Para-Powerlifters failed to win a medal. Manpreet Kaur started with a successful lift of 87kg, scoring 88.6 points in her first attempt. In the second attempt, she lifted 88kg, scoring 89.6 points. In the last attempt, she failed to lift 90kg. Para-Powerlifter Sakina Khatun failed to lift 90kg in her first attempt. Khatun successfully lifted 90kg in her second attempt, scoring 87.5 points.

The pair finished just outside the podium places with totals of 89.6 Kg and 87.5 Kg. India's Manpreet Kaur and Sakina Khatun finish 4th and 5th respectively.

In the men's category, Parmjeet Kumar started his event with a failed attempt of a 165kg lift. The Indian lifter was again unsuccessful to lift 165kg. Even in his last attempt, he failed to lift, thus ending the event at the bottom of the table.