Gururaja Poojary son of a truck driver, won a medal at the Commonwealth Games

Gururaja Poojary won a medal at the second consecutive Commonwealth Games. He won the bronze medal in the men’s 61kg weight category on Saturday by lifting 269kg. He lifted 118 kg in snatch and 151 kg in clean and jerk. The weightlifter also won silver in the 2018 Gold Coast. Earlier today, Sanket Mahadev Sargar won the silver medal by lifting 248 kg of weight in the 55 kg weight category. In this way, India has made a great start to their Birmingham Games.

Gururaja Poojary, who works in the Indian Air Force, had decided to come into wrestling after seeing wrestler Sushil Kumar. In the 2008 Olympics, Sushil won a medal. He had also started going to the arena. But the school teacher advised him to go into weightlifting. After this, Gururaja, the youngest of the 5 brothers, did not look back. His father is a truck driver. In such a situation, they had to struggle a lot about diet in the beginning. In a way, India has made a great start to their Birmingham Games. The height of Gururaja Pujari is only 156 centimeters. But this player has surprised everyone with his performance.

• DISCIPLINE: Weightlifting
• Event: 61kg
• Date of Birth: 15/08/1992
• Hometown: Udupi, Karnataka
• Training Base: NS NIS Patiala
• Coach: Vijay Sharma
• Background: (Few background points about the athlete)
• Gururaja started Weightlifting during his college days in the year 2010. In the year 2015, he joined
• the Air Force. He was on boarded in the Indian National Camp in 2016.
• Achievement:
• Key Government Interventions: No
• Equipment Support: No
• Foreign/ Support Staff:
• Vijay Sharma: Head Coach
• Sandip Kumar: Coach
• Pramod Sharma: Coach
• A.P. Dathan: Coach
• Vijay Rohilla: Coach
• Anil Kumar: Coach
• S Sathish Kumar: Coach
• Nogender Singh: Coach
• Hariyali Barot: Physiotherapist
• Amit Sahu: Physiotherapist
• Ramakrishna Bansiwal: Masseur

In December last year, Gururaja had won a silver medal in the 61 kg weight class at the Commonwealth Championships. But the 2018 medal changed his life. The performance of Indian players in weightlifting has been good in the overall Commonwealth Games. Prior to the Games, India had won 125 medals, including 43 gold, 48 silver and 34 bronze. This is the second best performance as a game in games. The highest number of 135 medals in shooting, including 63 gold, has been won.

Women’s weightlifter Mirabai Chanu will also be landing tonight. Everyone expects a gold medal from her