India’s Bindyarani Devi, Muthupandi Raja and Sneha Soren secured silver medals at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships 2025 in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, while 17-year-old Koyel Bar stole the spotlight with youth world records.
Bindyarani Devi, competing in the women’s 58kg, lifted 206kg (91kg snatch+115kg clean and jerk) to claim silver.
She progressed through 85kg, 88kg, and 91kg in snatch and cleared 110kg and 115kg in clean and jerk before failing her final 122kg attempt. Australia’s Kiana Elliott took gold with 212kg (100kg+112kg).
Bindyarani Devi won the silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in the 55kg division. She is a former Commonwealth champion, having won gold in 2019 and silver in 2021.
In the men’s 65kg, Muthupandi Raja came agonisingly close to the gold medal, finishing with 296kg (128kg+168kg), just shy of Malaysia’s Muhamad Aznil Bin Bidin, who lifted 297kg (125kg+172kg).
Papua New Guinea’s Moria Baru claimed bronze with 292kg (127kg+165kg).
The day also belonged to Koyel Bar, who impressed in the women’s 53kg youth category with a total of 192kg (85kg + 107kg), setting new youth world records in total and clean and jerk.
In the senior women’s 53kg, Nigeria’s Omolola Onome Didih took gold with 197kg (90kg+107kg), while India’s Sneha Soren lifted 185kg (81kg+104kg) for silver.
The 30th edition of the championships features over 300 lifters from 31 nations.
Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Mirabai Chanu had kicked off India’s campaign on Monday, winning gold in the women’s 48kg and securing qualification for the next year’s Commonwealth Games. Only winners in each senior category earn automatic spots for Glasgow 2026.