Commonwealth Games 2026 | 'I really thought there was no way I was going to lose gold...': India's weightlifter Lovepreet Singh

Soon after winning silver holding the medal around his neck Lovepreet Singh told us in Punjabi ldquoMainu lagda si apna gold aa hi gaya hun I thought the gold medal was minerdquoAt the halfway stage of the menrsquos 110kg weightlifting competition at the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday night Lovepreet was practically certain he was going to win the gold medal ldquoI really thought there was no way I was going to lose gold after the snatch sectionrdquo Lovepreet saidYou can blame Lovepreet for getting ahead of himself for counting his chickens before the eggs had hatched yet such thoughts arenrsquot unnatural if you lead your nearest rival by 10kg after the snatch section Overturning such a lead in the clean and jerk is difficult though not unheard of of course mdash and New Zealandrsquos David Andrew Liti did the unthinkable on Thursday night to deny Lovepreet the goldDavid LitiLiti the Birmingham 2022 CWG silver medallist in the 109kg division had a best lift of 166kg in snatch Lovepreet bettered that by 10kg when he set a new CWG record of 176kgComing back for the clean and jerk section close to an hour later Liti had a mountain to climb Lovepreet lifted 205kg and Liti picked up 207kg The Indianrsquos aggregate was now 381kg to Litirsquos 373kg On his next attempt Lovepreet added 7kg to the bars and straining every muscle in his body completed the lift Minutes later the Indian giant again strode to the middle offered a silent prayer and bent down to lift 217kgldquoIrsquove done this lift in the past and I thought Irsquod do it againrdquo he said later He couldnrsquot Yet with a total of 388kg he had a lead of 15kg over Liti But Liti had a nasty surprise in store He raised the bar from 207kg to 223kg and turned the tables with a monster lift He surged to the top with a total of 389kgLovepreet was beaten the gold he thought was his had been snatched away Liti didnrsquot have to attempt his third lift for he had won by a kiloThis was a rude surprise for Lovepreet but those who saw Liti in Birmingham four years ago had witnessed him lifting 218kg and 224kg in the clean and jerkldquoNow I rue missing my lift of 217kgrdquo Lovepreet who is employed by the Indian Navy said Then typically for a Punjabi from a village he used a wrestlerrsquos rather than a lifterrsquos analogy ldquoJadon do pehelwan bhidde ne ik ne taan tehna hi hai when two wrestlers fight one of them has to fallrdquo he saidIndians in action todayPara Athleticsgtgt Menrsquos F57 shot put final Shubham Juyal and Soman Rana 1435 onwardsgtgt Menrsquos 1500m T54 final Ramesh Shanmugam 1450Athleticsgtgt Menrsquos triple jump final Praveen Chithravel and Selva Prabhu Thirumaran 1440gtgt Womenrsquos 10000m race walk final Priyanka Goswami and Ravina Gayakwad 1500gtgt Menrsquos pole vault final Dev Meena and Kuldeep Kumar 2335 onwardsgtgt Menrsquos 5000m final Gulveer Singh 0015 Sundaygtgt Mixed 4x400m relay final Vishal TK Rajesh Ramesh Rashdeep Kaur and Neeru Pathak 0150 SundayBoxinggtgt Womenrsquos 54kg final Preeti Pawar vs Scarlett Savannah Delgado Canada 1530gtgt Womenrsquos 57kg final Jaismine Lamboria vs Michaela Walsh Northern Ireland 1545gtgt Menrsquos 55kg final Jadumani Singh vs Jye Dixon Australia 1615gtgt Womenrsquos 70kg final Arundhati Choudhary vs Chantelle Reid England 2130gtgt Menrsquos 80kg final Ankush Panghal vs Dimeji Shittu England 2215Judogtgt Womenrsquos 63kg round of 16 Unnati Sharma vs Lamulela Magagula Eswatini1530 onwardsgtgt Menrsquos 90kg round of 16 Karanjit Singh Maan vs Elliott Connolly New Zealand1530 onwardsgtgt Menrsquos 81kg quarterfinal Harsh Tokas vs Odysseas Georgakis Cyprus1530 onwardsgtgt Womenrsquos 70kg quarterfinal Inunganbi Takhellambam vs TBD 1530 onwardsLawn Bowlsgtgt Menrsquos pairs sectional play India Navneet Singh Dinesh Kumar vs England 1550gtgt Womenrsquos singles sectional play Nayanmoni Saikia vs Bridget Herselman South Africa 2220Track Cyclinggtgt Menrsquos 10km scratch race qualifying Dinesh Kumar amp Harshveer Singh Sekhon 1619 onwards