Who is Sanket Mahadev Sargar: The 21-year-old Sanket Mahadev Sargar has become the talking topic of entire India after he snatched the silver medal for the country in the ongoing 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Sanket Mahadev Sargar Won Silver Medal in Commonwealth 2022
Sanket Mahadev Sargar who featured in the Men’s 55kg category weightlifting lifted a total of 248 kg to bring the silver medal home.
Sanket snatched 113kg and clean & jerked 135 kg for a total of 248kg in the men’s 55kg weight division and wrote his name into the record books. Meanwhile, Malaysian weightlifter Mohamad Aniq won the gold by lifting 249kg (107kg 142kg). Sri Lanka’s Dilanka Isuru Kumara lifted 225kg (105kg 120kg) and took home the bronze medal.
“I heard a snap-like sound during the second attempt in clean and jerk and dropped the weights. After that my coach had a look at my arm, there was a lot of pain but I had to make the third attempt. I tried to secure the gold, but i could not do it,” Sargar told the media with the silver medal around his neck.
Sanket sargar 🔥🔥🔥
Congratulations for lifting 113 KG weight in Snatch weightlifting.
Sanket mahadev Sagar 🔥
All the best for Clean and Jerk.
Get the Gold 🥇#CommonwealthGames2022 #CWG22 #sanketsargar pic.twitter.com/ZkRNIMit67— Ankit Rajput (@ankit_rajput9) July 30, 2022
“I am very disappointed and angry as I lost the gold medal. I had prepared and worked so hard for the gold medal but unfortunately, this injury prevented me from claiming gold,” said Sargar after his event.
Notably, this is the first big multi-discipline event medal for the 22-year-old from Maharashtra’s Sangli. Earlier in February this year, he had qualified for Commonwealth Games with his performance at the Singapore Weightlifting International event.
At that event, he not only earned his qualification for the multi-sport event, but also smashed the Commonwealth Championships and National Level record with a combined lift of 256 kg, which consists of 113 kg in the Snatch category and 143 in the Clean and Jerk category. This performance earned him a gold medal at the event.
India opens it medal tally with a silver — courtesy weightlifter Sanket Mahadev Sargar. #BirminghamCommonwealthGames pic.twitter.com/TqX9WcPdep
— Bhavya Chand (@bhavya_journo) July 30, 2022
At the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in December 2021 in Tashkent, he won a gold medal with a lift of 113 kg, which also helped him create a new national record in the Snatch category.
READ: 2022 Commonwealth Games Medal Table | Ranking By Country
Who is Sanket Mahadev Sargar?
Sanket Mahadev Sargar was born on 16 October 2000 in Maharshtra’s Sangli. His father Mahadev runs a ‘paan’ shop and food stall while the lifter struggled to find a job.
His childhood coach Mayur Sinhasane revealed that at a young age, Sanket used to wake early in the morning to help his father at his Paan store before going for training at the gym.
“Sanket has sacrificed his entire childhood. From waking up 5:30am to making tea for customers to going to the gym later in the evening, he dreamt of only one thing,” Sinhasane told PTI. “He had only one dream and that was to bring laurels to the country in weightlifting and give a good life to his family. Now his dream is coming true.”
Sinhasane further revealed that Sanket has been fulfilling his father’s incomplete dream to be a weightlifter. The Sargar family, in fact, went through some tough times before Sanket was picked for the national team.
“Sanket neither had a sponsor nor was financially well off before getting into TOPS. His father would take care of his sport by borrowing and we would take full care of his diet and exercise.
“Sometimes his father could return money, sometimes not, but we never let it become a hindrance in Sanket’s training,” explained Sinhasane.
“My father Nana Sinhasane trained him from 2013-2015 and I trained him from 2017 to 2021 with a target of the CWG. I was sure he would win a medal. We only have talented children from poor homes and he was exceptionally talented among them too,” he added.
