After Sanket Mahadev Sargar, now India’s Gururaja Poojary, who won India's first medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Gold Coast, has now won the second medal for the country in the ongoing edition at Birmingham. Gururaja earned the bronze medal in the 2022 CWG in the men's 61 kg event on Saturday in Birmingham (July 30).
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To ensure India's second medal of the competition, Poojary successfully performed a combined lift of 269 kg (118 kg in the snatch and 151 kg in the clean and jerk). At the CWG weightlifting competitions, Poojary added to India's impressive performance, bringing its total number of medals to 127.
Who Is Gururaja Poojary?
At the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, Gururaja Poojary won a silver medal. He was born in Udupi, Karnataka, India, and trains at Patiala's National Institute of Sports. Vijay Sharma is his coach. In 2010, Gururaja began weightlifting while still in college. He enlisted in the Air Force in the year 2015. In 2016, he boarded in the Indian National Camp.
Moreover, if reports are to be believed, then it has been said that Gururaja was the inspiration for Sanket, who nailed his first medal at CWG 2022, also India's first in this mega event. Yes, it is surprisingly true. At only 17 years old, Sanket witnessed Gururaja earn a silver medal at the CWG 2018 by lifting heavy. Sanket was motivated to start lifting after seeing that lift and winning.
Gururaja began weightlifting in 2010, but his first significant medal didn't come until the 2017 Commonwealth Championships, where he took home a bronze in Australia. His experience is typical of many Olympic athletes. In the Udupi district, Gururaja Poojari is from the unremarkable village of Vandse. His father drives trucks and has five brothers. He was poor and now hopes for a better life. Gururaja initially dabbled in wrestling before being persuaded to take up weightlifting by Rajendra Prasad at SDM College in Ujire.
PM Narendra Modi Tweet:
While wishing for more success and milestones in his sports journey, PM Modi tweeted, “Overjoyed by the accomplishment of P. Gururaja! Congratulations to him for winning the Bronze at the Commonwealth Games. He demonstrated great resilience and determination. I wish him many more milestones in his sporting journey.”
It has been great that bronze medal winner Gururaja inspired a 17-year-old to take up the sport and excel at it as well. Not to forget that Gururaja began his athletic career as a wrestler before pursuing weightlifting and later powerlifting.
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