Raja Muthupandy wins Silver Medal: The fourth day of Commonwealth Games 2026 brought good news for India, where the country won 3 medals. The biggest success in this came on the strength of the country’s most successful weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, who created history by winning the gold medal. This is India’s first gold in the Glasgow Games. But apart from these, two silver medals also came from weightlifting and the second medal is very special, which was won by Raja Mutupandi. Raja, who returned to the Commonwealth Games after 8 years, won the silver medal by lifting 286 kg.
On Sunday, July 26, Indian weightlifters were in great form on the fourth day of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2026. It was started by Rishikanta Singh, who won the silver medal in the men’s 60 kg weight category. Olympic medalist again Mirabai Chanu won gold medal in Commonwealth Games Created history by scoring a hat-trick. In the last weightlifting event of the day, Raja Mutupandi presented his claim for India and this 26 year old weightlifter did not return empty handed.
Bad start but strong finish, won silver
The challenge was not easy for Raja, who entered the men’s 65 kg weight category. Even in both the rounds he had a bad start. After failing in his first attempt in the snatch, Raja lifted 126 kg in the second attempt, which was his best in this round and he stood second. After this, his first attempt to lift 158 kg in clean and jerk failed.
But in the second attempt, Raja surprised everyone and increased his weight to 160 kg. Despite the increased weight, he lifted it easily. In the third attempt, Raja wanted to lift 170 kg, but did not succeed. In this way, by lifting 126 and 160 kg i.e. a total of 286 kg, Raja got his name written on the silver medal.
The challenge before Raja in this event was already difficult because in the same category there was also Malaysia’s Ajnil Muhammad, who had won the gold of this event in the last two CWG. The same happened this time too and like Mirabai, the Malaysian weightlifter also completed her hat-trick by winning the gold medal here. Ajnil won gold with a Commonwealth Games record total of 299 kg. The bronze medal went to Papua-New Guinea.
Even injury and illness could not break the courage.
This success of Raja Muthupandi, who comes from Kovilpatti, Tamil Nadu, is very special and emotional. This is because this was the second time that he submitted his claim in the Commonwealth Games. The last time he was a part of the Games was in 2018, but then 18-year-old Raja finished sixth. After this, when he had to strengthen his game and contend for the medal again, his bad phase started. In 2019, he suffered an elbow injury, which required surgery. But soon after this the coronavirus pandemic spread and his rehabilitation process started coming to a halt.
According to The Bridge report, he somehow recovered and made a comeback in 2021 and was regaining his rhythm and preparing himself for the 2022 Games. But in the meanwhile Raja developed jaundice and after recovering from it, he also had to undergo surgery for appendicitis. Due to these new problems he stayed away for 10 months. But gradually he made a comeback and strengthened himself. In the same year, he created a national record by lifting 302 kg weight in the National Championship.
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