The gold just slipped out of my hand: Bindyarani Devi

Bindyarani Sorokhaibam with her silver on Saturday. Pic/PTI

If Mirabai gave Indian fans some anxious moments after a slight stumble following her third snatch lift on Saturday, Bindyarani Sorokhaibam turned in a dramatic last lift in the Clean & Jerk at 116kg to turn a probable bronze into a fine silver on Sunday. Competing late in the evening after India had won one gold, one silver and one bronze in the three previous categories, Bindyarani delighted the fans with a silver medal.

"I'm very happy to get a silver in my first CWG," she said, before quickly adding: "Today was my life's best performance… [but, I feel] gold slipped out of my hand. I failed to finish in the centre [gold medal position] of the podium. I will surely do better next time."

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Her total of 202kg was just one kilo off the gold. She added, "If I had lifted 114kgs in the second attempt [it was called no-lift], I would have gone for more in the third. It was a bit of a shock [the no-lift], but I'm thankful that I got the silver at least."

Her coaches and she did not want to risk the silver by going for 118kg in C&J which would have fetched her gold and instead chose 116kg after failing once at 114kg. That gave her the silver. Nigeria's Adijat Adenike Olarinoye took gold with 92kg snatch and 111 in C&J, as compared to Bindiya's 86kg snatch and 116kg C&J.