Youth Olympics: Jeremy Lalrinnunga wins India's first-ever individual weightlifting Gold

New Delhi, Oct 9: Young Indian athletes continue their good show at the ongoing Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. Now, 15-year-old weightlifter, Jeremy Lalrinnunga has done the country proud by clinching India's first-ever gold medal in the men's 62kg category.

Jeremy - who hails from Mizoram - lifted 124kg in snatch and 150kg in clean & jerk to lift a total weight of 274kg on Monday (October 8) to top the podium. Turkey's Toptas Caner, who lifted 263 kg (122 kg + 141 kg), won the silver medal while Colombia's Villar Estiven Jose took the bronze with an effort of 260 kg (115 kg + 143 kg).

Before Jeremy secured the yellow metal at the event, India had never won a gold in these Games.

Historic GOLD for Jeremy!

In a superb show of strength by our 15 year-old weightlifter Jeremy Lalrinnunga wins a GOLD Medal in the Men’s 62 kg category at @buenosaires2018. CONGRATS young man, on India’s 1st EVER Gold at #YouthOlympics. #KheloIndia pic.twitter.com/ASrBpQO7Et

— Rajyavardhan Rathore (@Ra_THORe) October 9, 2018

Jeremy, who will turn 16 on October 26, is being touted as the next big name in Indian weightlifting. His previous best until latest lift was of 273 kg (snatch+clean and jerk), which he achieved during an event at NIS Patiala last month.

India has won three silver medals in the Youth Olympics with Tushar Mane (10m Air Rifle), Tababi Devi (44kg Judo) and Mehuli Ghosh (10m Air Rifle) and now this gold to take their tally to four. India have sent a 46-member contingent, which is their largest-ever, at the third Youth Olympic Games across 13 disciplines.

Here’s the #MedalTally at the conclusion of events yesterday from @BuenosAires2018.

A historic first ever #YOG gold that came from #Weightlifting was the highlight as India doubled its overall tally from 2014.#IndiaAtYOG #TeamIndia @youtholympics #SAI #KheloIndia🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/3L7ntTnnbn

— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) October 9, 2018

Earlier on Monday, the highly-talented Mehuli Ghosh came within striking distance of winning a historic gold before settling for a silver medal in the women's 10m air-rifle shooting event. A 9.1 in the 24th and final shot, after an excellent sequence of high and mid 10s, cost her the gold medal as she eventually settled for the second position with a total of 248.0.

The 18-year-old Indian finished behind Denmark's Stephanie Grundsoee, who ended with a score of 248.7. This was India's second silver from the shooting ranges in two days with Shahu Mane coming second in the men's air rifle event on Sunday.

Mehuli had topped the qualifying with a score of 628.8 earlier in the morning and led the eight-woman finals field after 10 shots with a score of 104.3, 1.1 ahead of Stephanie. By the 12th shot, which is also the stage where the first of the eight finalists get eliminated, German Anna Janssen had come up to second.

Meanwhile Serbia's Marija Malic was also following the leading trio. It was then a seesaw battle between the Indian, Dane, German and Serbian and after the 16th shot the difference was 0.2 between the four of them. As the Chinese Wang Zeru, a gold medal winner in the 3 Positions event at the senior World Cup in Changwon this year, bowed out after the 18th shot, it was the German who eventually missed out on the medal with a 9.7 for her 20th shot.

Mehuli then shot a 10.7 for her 22nd and with the final two shots to go, ahead of the Dane by 0.8 as the Serbian Marija settled for bronze. Mehuli took a 0.6 point lead into the final shot but a 9.1, to the Dane's 10.6, meant that she had to settle for silver.

India also have Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary to look forward to in shooting, besides the mixed events.

(With PTI inputs)