Returning to the Commonwealth stage after an eight-year gap, Raja earned his first medal at the Games.
| Photo Credit: AP
Throughout his interaction with the Indian media on Sunday night after winning silver medal in the men’s 65kg weightlifting event of the Commonwealth Games at the Scottish Event Campus, Raja Muthupandi remained glum.
Tipped by Indian head coach Vijay Sharma as one of the country’s bright medal prospects, the Tamil Nadu lifter finished with a total of 286kg, 13kg behind Malaysia’s Muhamad Aznil Bin Bidin. Aznil clinched his third successive gold at the quadrennial event with a Games record of 299kg.
The 26-year-old Raja, son of a truck loader and an employee of Southern Railway, never looked at his best on the stage. He successfully completied only two of the six attempts — a 126kg in snatch and a 160 in clean and jerk. In the snatch series, Raja failed to clear 126 in his first and 129 in the third try.
And in clean and jerk, Raja couldn’t assert himself as he failed again in the first (158kg) and third (170) attempts.
In contrast, Aznil produced a flawless display, setting Games records in the snatch (133), clean and jerk (166) and total.
Raja did not shy away from admitting his disappointment.
“My (Indian team) coach Vijay Sharma believed I could give my best for the gold. But I couldn’t deliver,” he said.
For Raja, who took up weightlifting in 2012 at Sankaralingapuram in Kovilpatti and has been training at the National camp in the U.P. town Modinagar alongside Mirabai Chanu for the past two years, the silver medal was was difficult to digest.
A regular at the National camp since 2016, Raja has steadily grown into one of India’s better lifters.
Expectations were high after his National record-breaking performance at the Senior Nationals in Modinagar in February, where he lifted a total of 302kg (130 in snatch and 172 in clean & jerk).
Raja had finished sixth on his Commonwealth Games debut at Gold Coast in 2018 before an injury ruled him out of the Birmingham Games in 2022.
Returning to the Commonwealth stage after an eight-year gap, Raja finally earned his first medal at the Games. Yet, with the gold slipping away, the silver left him with mixed emotions — a bitter-sweet memory that will possibly serve as motivation.
Published – July 27, 2026 06:03 pm IST
