Lifter Geeta Rani fails to fire, finishes fourth

Defending champion Geeta Rani failed to live up to expectations as he finished a disappointing fourth in the women's 75+kg category in the weightlifting event of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi on Sunday.

Geeta Rani, who won the gold in the same weight category four years ago in Melbourne, cut a sorry figure before her opponents -- Ele Opeloge of Samoa, who bagged the gold, silver medal winner Maryam Usman of Nigeria and Australia's Deborah Acason (bronze).

In fact, the 29-year-old Indian was never in the contention from the very beginning, as Opeloge started the competition by attempting a lift of 120kg in her very first try in the snatch event, whereas Geeta began her campaign with 95kg attempt.

Opeloge created new Commonwealth Games records in almost all categories (snatch, clean and jerk and total) during the course of the competition.

With a combined lift of 285kg (125kg in snatch and 160kg in clean and jerk), the 25-year-old Samoan bettered her own record in this category.

The 19-year-old Usman of Nigeria lifted 115kg in snatch and 140kg in clean and jerk for a total effort of 255kg to run away with the silver, while Acason bagged the bronze with a total lift of 245kg (110kg in snatch and 135kg in clean and jerk).

Meanwhile, Sangrur-born Geeta Rani, who had won three silver medals in Asian Championship in 2004 and a bronze medal in 2003 Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad, simply failed to match her own skills, ending with a combined lift of 235kg (100kg in snatch and 135 in clean and jerk).

Opeloge, in the clean and jerk event, lifted 150kg in her very first attempt and then topped it up by lifting 160kg to overshadow Geeta Rani's Commonwealth Games record and her own best in the Games.

The lifter from Samoa had a chance to even better it but she could not lift 165kg in her final attempt.

Silver medallist Usman, on her part, also managed to break records twice before handing it over to Opeloge.

Earlier, the snatch event was a treat for the public as it saw new Games record created time and again with every lift.

Firstly, it was Deborah Acason who set up a new CWG record of 106kg by going past Simple Bhumrah of India (105kg). She went on to break her own record by lifting 110kg in her second attempt.

However, it was later broken by Usman with a lift of 115kg, while Opeloge once again rewrote the record books by lifting 120kg in her very first attempt and then went on to better it by lifting 125kg to set a new Commonwealth Games record.

But she failed to get past her own Commonwealth record of 126kg as she could not lift 130kg in her third and final attempt in the snatch event.

At the conclusion of snatch, Opeloge had already marched way ahead by simply outplaying all her opponents to finish on 125kg, 10 points ahead of the second-placed Usman (115kg) and third-placed Acason (110kg).

The Indian lifted 100kg to take the fourth position. The Arjuna awardee though was impressive in her first two lifts of 95kg and 100kg respectively but she failed in her third attempt of 103kg.

And in clean and jerk event, even though she did not miss a single attempt, her maximam lift was 135kg, way less than the other three.