David Liti’s 223kg stunner denies Lovepreet Singh Commonwealth Games gold by one kilogram in weightlifting

India’s weightlifting team ended its Commonwealth Games 2026 campaign with another medal on Thursday after Lovepreet Singh won silver in the men’s 110+kg category in Glasgow.It was India’s eighth medal in weightlifting at the Games. Earlier, Mirabai Chanu (women’s 48kg – gold), Rishikanta Singh (men’s 60kg – silver), Muthupandi Raja (men’s 65kg – silver), Bindyarani Devi (women’s 58kg – bronze), Gyaneshwari Yadav (women’s 53kg – silver), Valluri Ajaya Babu (men’s 79kg – silver), and Harjinder Kaur (women’s 69kg – silver) had also finished on the podium.Weightlifting has two disciplines — the snatch and the clean and jerk. Each lifter gets three attempts in both events. In the snatch, the barbell is lifted from the ground to overhead in one movement with a wide grip. In the clean and jerk, the lifter first brings the barbell to the shoulders (clean), pauses, and then lifts it overhead (jerk), holding it steady until the buzzer.Lovepreet made a strong start by lifting a Commonwealth Games record 176kg in the snatch to finish first in that section. He held a 10kg lead over New Zealand’s David Andrew Liti, who lifted 166kg, while England’s Andrew Griffiths was third with 165kg.The 28-year-old from Amritsar then lifted 212kg in the clean and jerk to finish with a total of 388kg.However, Liti produced a Commonwealth Games record lift of 223kg in the clean and jerk to move ahead of the Indian and win gold with a total of 389kg, just one kilogram more than Lovepreet. Liti had lifted 166kg in the snatch.Griffiths won the bronze medal with a total lift of 356kg, made up of 165kg in the snatch and 191kg in the clean and jerk.Lovepreet led the competition through his first five lifts, but Liti’s final lift changed the result. The New Zealander made up a 15kg gap with his last clean and jerk attempt to take the gold medal.Despite missing gold by just one kilogram, Lovepreet improved on the bronze medal he won at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.His silver medal also ensured India finished the weightlifting competition with eight medals.