Nooh wins maiden gold medal for Pakistan in Commonwealth Games

BIRMINGHAM: Pakistan’s highly gutsy weightlifter Nooh Dastgir Butt Wednesday shattered several records and lifted gold medal in the +109 kilogramme competitions of the weightlifting event of the Commonwealth Games, here at the National Exhibition Centre.

This is also the first gold medal which Pakistan has claimed in the ongoing event and the second in Pakistan’s Commonwealth Games weightlifting history. Shuja-Uddin Malik is the only other weightlifter so far who has claimed gold in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games in the 85 kilogramme.

Nooh lifted a 173kg in snatch, which is also the Commonwealth Games record. He topped the snatch session. He started the snatch with a 170kg lift, then lifted 173kg and mis-lifted 175 during his third attempt but still was able to top the pack.

And it showed that he was a confirmed gold medallist. He extended an even better performance in the clean and jerk session and his record lift of 232kg earned him the gold with a record total of 405kg.

David Andrew of New Zealand finished with a silver medal which he earned with a total of 394kg, which included 170kg in snatch and 224kg in clean and jerk.

Gurdeep Singh of India snared bronze with a 390kg total which carried 167kg in snatch and 223kg clean and jerk. They were followed by Petelo of Samoa (371kg), England’s Gordon Shaw (362kg), Suamili Nanai of Australia (361kg), Canada’s Quinn Everett (358kg) and Sri Lanka’s Ushan Charuka (313kg). South Africa’s Nathan Eli Morris was put out of the race due to three successive mis-lifts in the jerk session.

Both Nooh and Hanzala were trained by his father at home for the quadrennial event which England is hosting for the third time.

With Nooh’s terrific effort, Pakistan’s weightlifting journey in the Commonwealth Games also came to an end. Early Wednesday morning, Nooh’s younger brother Hanzala Dastgir Butt finished ninth in the 109kg competition. The other day Haider Ali had finished fifth in the 81kg competition. All these three weightlifters will now move to Turkey to feature in the Islamic Games slated to be held in Konya from August 9 to 18.