President Kovind hails weightlifter Sivalingam for CWG heroics

President Ram Nath Kovind congratulated weightlifter Sathish Kumar Sivalingam for his gold-medal winning effort at the ongoing Gold Coast Commonwealth Games on Saturday.

Power-man Sivalingam bagged gold by lifting a total of 317 kg (144 kg in Snatch and 173 kg in Clean-and-Jerk) in men's 77 kg on Day 3 of the Games.

"Weightlifters continue to make us proud on Day 3 at #GC2018. Congratulations to Sathish Kumar Sivalingam for bagging the Gold in Men's 77Kg," President Kovind tweeted.

Sivalingam medal at the 21st edition of the event was his 2nd consecutive gold medal at the Games. He had earlier bagged gold in Glasgow in 2014.

Moreover, it is India's fifth medal so far in Commonwealth Games 2018, and all of them have come in weightlifting.

Earlier, women weightlifters Sanjita Chanu and Saikhom Mirabai Chanu made India proud by bagging gold medals in the 53 kg and 48 kg category event respectively.

Deepak Lather won bronze in the men's 69 kg category on Day 2 while weightlifter won country's first silver P. Gururaja in the 56 kg category.

Elsewhere on Day 3 at the Gold Coast, India's run in the Squash singles ended as lone survivor Deepika Pallikal gave a walkover to her Canadian opponent Samantha Cornett in the quarterfinal.

In swimming, Srihari Natraj qualified for the semi-finals by finishing third in his heat with a national record of 26.47.

In table tennis, India beat Malaysia in the doubles event to enter the semifinals.