Kunjarani Devi clinches three gold

India's N Kunjarani Devi clinched the overall gold medal in the women's 48 kg category in the weightlifting event of the 17th Commonwealth Games on Tuesday.

She lifted 167.5 kg while Canada's Karine Turcotte took the silver medal with an effort of 157.5 kg. The bronze went to Ebonette Deigaeruk, whjo lofted 145 kg.

The 30-year-old Indian strongwoman, who returned to international competition after serving a six-month ban for testing positive during random tests carried out during the July 12-17, 2001 Senior Asian Weightlifting Championships, at the ongoing Games, swept the medals in the event, winning the snatch, and clean and jerk gold medals with lifts of 75 kilos and 92.5 kilos respectively for a combined score of 167.5 kg.

Earlier in the day, Thandavamurthy Muthu and Vickey Batta won an overall silver and bronze each in the men's 56 kg event.

Sydney Olympian Muthu could only manage a lift of 245 kgs and was pipped to the gold by Malaysia's Amirul Hamizan Ibrahim, who set a Games record with a lift of 260.0 kg.

Vickey Batta's bronze effort was 242.5 kg.

The 20-year-old Malaysian made a clean sweep of the medals, winning the snatch and clean-and-jerk disciplines as well as the overall title based on the combined scores from the two lifts. His lifted 115 kilos in the snatch, 145 kilos in the clean-and-jerk, for a combined total of 260 kilos.

The previous Games record of 245 kg was held by India's Pandian Arumugam, which was set in Kuala Lumpur at the 1998 Games.

Thandavamurthy Muthu (56kg) Weightlifting. (2 medals - Overall + Snatch) Muthu won two silvers -- overall and snatch -- nd bronze in the clean-and-jerk while Batta took silver in the clean-and-jerk and two bronzes -- overall and snatch.

Muthu lifted 112.5 kg in snatch and 132.5 in clean and jerk while Batta had lifts of 107.5 and 135.0 respectively.

Malaysia's Mohd Faizal Baharom took bronze in the snatch after lifting 110 kilos.

In the last edition of the Games, in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, 13 of India's 25 medals were won by the weighlifters

Results
Men's Up to 56 kgs final:
1 Amirul Hamizan Ibrahim (Mas) 260.0 Kg
2 ThandavaMuthu (Ind) 245.0 Kg
3 Vickey Batta (Ind) 242.5 Kg
4 Mohd Faizal Baharom (Mas) 240.0 Kg
5 Chinthana Geetal Vidanage (Sri) 227.5 Kg
6 Mehmet Yagci (Aus) 227.5 Kg
7 Chako Daniel (Nru) 217.5 Kg
8 Gino Soupprayen Padiatty (Mri) 205.0 Kg
9 Salim Balinnya (Uga) 202.5 Kg
10 Obrie Nondo (Zam) 200.0 Kg
11 Jeffrey Robby (Png) 195.0 Kg

Women's Up to 48 kgs Final:
1 Kunjarani Devi Nameirakpam (Ind) 167.5 Kg
2 KarineTurcotte (Can) 157.5 Kg
3 Ebonette Deigaeruk (Nru) 145.0 Kg
4 Kate Howard (Wal)115.0 Kg
5 Mary Hancock (Wal) 107.5 Kg
6 Dika Toua (Png) Did Not Finish
MercyApondi Obiero (Ken) Did Not Finish