It will be a good rivalry with Jeremy Lalrinnunga for Olympics: Achinta Sheuli

Not happy with gold, Sheuli says attaining personal best was his goalBIRMINGHAM: It has been a windfall of medals for Indian weightlifters here. After Mirabai Chanu showed the way with a gold on Saturday, Jeremy Lalrinnunga and Achinta Sheuli followed with two more top positions. Achinta lifted 313kg (143kg in snatch + 170kg in clean and jerk) late on Sunday to smash the CWG record in the 73kg category.

TOI caught up with the 2 0-year-old on the sidelines on Monday. Excerpts:Has the feeling of being a gold medal winner sunk in yet?It is a proud moment for me. But I was also trying to break my personal best in the process, and not being able to do that was a bit disappointing.

Read AlsoCWG 2022: From tailoring to lifting weights, Achinta Sheuli scripts his own success story

20-year-old Achinta Sheuli hailing from West Bengal's Deulpur village in Howrah district twice bettered the Games record in both the snatch and clean & jerk and then finished with a record total lift of 313kg to make a memorable debut on the CWG stage.

You hold the clean and jerk and overall Indian record in the 73kg category, but the snatch is missing. Were you looking to break it here?There was a stiff fight between me and the second-placed Malaysian (Erry Hidayat Muhammad). The coaches were actually playing it safe because we didn't want to let go of the gold medal. Otherwise, had I given my best performance, I would've broken the record in snatch (145kg, belonging to Deepak Lather).

How confident were you of winning gold?I was not just looking to get gold, but attaining my personal best was as great a motive. As I said, I could've done better but in the second clean and jerk lift, I had a little blackout and got confused where to give the final