With his mom’s good-luck attraction by his facet, weightlifter Thakur completes hat-trick of CWG podium finishes

Vikas Thakur kissed a sacred thread on his brow simply earlier than he squatted for his second clean-and-jerk elevate within the 96 kg weight class medal spherical on Tuesday.

The thread was given to him by his mom, Asha, who feared Vikas’ well-being. Thakur, in any case, had suffered a number of accidents throughout his profession, particularly within the final 4 years, and this, his mom believed, would act as a good-luck attraction and ‘protect him from an evil eye’.

On Tuesday, Thakur not simply emerged unscathed and free from damage, but additionally accomplished a hat-trick of Commonwealth Games medals. The 28-year-old’s second clean-and-jerk elevate of 191kg helped propel his total complete to 346 kg (155 snatch, 191 clear and jerk), which was sufficient to win a silver medal after Samoa’s Don Opeloge demolished the sector by lifting a Games Record 381kg, 35 greater than the Indian.

Express video by Gurmeet Singh.

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As Thakur stepped on the rostrum in Birmingham, his household in Ludhiana broke into wild celebrations. “Vikas always tells us that injuries are like jewelry for players. But as a mother, I get worried. He has seen some injuries in the last four years including a shoulder injury, and hence I got him a sacred thread to tie on his forehead,” Asha says.

Thakur picked up the game at their house in Ludhiana’s Railway Colony in 2003. He’d elevate iron bars and weights at house, which his father Brij Lal Thakur, a former volleyball participant, used. Thakur Sr, a Railway guard, despatched his son to the city’s weightlifting centre two years later, the place he learnt the method below coach Parvesh Sharma.

Family members of Vikas Thakur rejoice at house in Ludhiana on Tuesday. Thakur gained the silver medal within the males’s 96 kg occasion with a complete elevate of 346 kg at Birmingham. (Express Photos by Gurmeet Singh)

Within years, Thakur started to dominate junior-level competitions at nationwide and worldwide ranges however it was the Asian Junior bronze and a silver medal on the senior Commonwealth Championship that might assist him break into the nationwide senior staff.

Thakur’s first medal within the Commonwealth Games got here in Glasgow in 2014, when he claimed the silver medal within the 86kg class. The subsequent 4 years would see Thakur shift his weight classes and he went on to win three nationwide titles whereas constantly managing podium finishes at worldwide competitions, particularly the Commonwealth Championships and Commonwealth Games. Last 12 months, he gained the bronze medal within the Commonwealth Championships in Tashkent with a complete elevate of 339 kg together with 150 kg in snatch and 189 in clear and jerk.

Family members of Vikas Thakur rejoice at house in Ludhiana on Tuesday. Thakur gained the silver medal within the males’s 96 kg occasion with a complete elevate of 346 kg at Birmingham. (Express Photos by Gurmeet Singh)

Thakur’s father stated the main target now could be on guiding younger lifters on the centre the place he skilled, as a lot as competing himself and successful medals. “When he started, the conditions were very bad. Yet, he did not complain,” Brij Lal says. “Post his medal in Glasgow and Gold Coast, he helped the younger kids training at the academy. Whenever he visits home from the national camp, he is always guiding junior players by teaching them techniques and sharing his experiences.”