Ajaya Babu suffered a heartbreak in the Men’s 79kg event at the Commonwealth Games 2026. One of the top contenders to win the gold medal, Ajaya had to settle for silver after his counterpart edged his tally of 330kg in the final lift of the event. Malaysia’s Muhammad Erry clinched the gold medal by lifting a total of 331kg. England’s Chris Murray lifted 325kg to win the bronze medal in the event that went down to the wire.
Ajaya kicked off the proceedings with a 145kg lift in the snatch event. His next lift wasn’t considered. He finished the snatch event with a CWG record of 149kg. He kicked off the clean and jerk event with a 174kg lift. He lifted 178kg and 181kg in the last two attempts. His lift of 181kg took him to the gold medal position for a minute.
Erry came up with his best performance of the evening and lifted 184kg in the final clean and jerk event to go past Ajaya. He only managed one legal lift of 147kg in the snatch event.
Erry lifted more than Ajaya in all three attempts in clean and jerk to win the gold medal. The Malaysian weightlifter also created a CWG record en route to his gold medal win.
Murray lifted 141kg, 145kg and 148kg in three attempts in the snatch event. He managed lifts of 169kg and 177kg in the clean and jerk, thus finishing with a total lift of 325kg.
India’s medal tally
Courtesy of Ajaya’s silver medal, India has now won 10 medals. A few minutes before Ajaya won the silver, Sharmila Dhankar and Shilpa K Shyla won the gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the Women’s shot put F57.
The Indian weightlifters have won the maximum medals thus far; as many as five weightlifters have made the country proud. Mirabai Chanu ended the country’s wait for a gold medal on Sunday (July 26) by lifting a total of 190kg in the 48kg Women’s event.
