Commonwealth Games silver medallist Pardeep Singh produced his personal best in the snatch event to win the men's 102kg gold in the National Weightlifting Championships.
On a quiet day with no big names in fray, Pardeep stamped his authority in the men's 102kg as he lifted a personal best 151kg in his third snatch attempt and 195kg in clean and jerk for a total of 346kg.
The Commonwealth Championship gold medallist, who hails from a farming family in Jandiala Manjki in Jalandhar district, lifted 195kg in his second attempt before pushing his limits to 203kg in clean-and-jerk.
However, he couldn't control his lift as he faltered at the start to settle for a total of 346kg, which was still 21kg ahead of his Services rival Shubham (145+180).
At the Olympic qualifying Asian Championship in China last year, Pardeep had achieved his personal best in all the categories totalling 351kg (150kg in snatch and 201 in clean and jerk) on his way to winning a bronze in clean and jerk.
"This is pre-competition tournament for him. We are testing him ahead of the Kazakhstan Asian Championships where his target would be to achieve 203kg," National coach Vijay Sharma said.
Results
Men's 96kg: Vikas Thakur (SSCB) (154+192=346); Jagdish Vishwakarma (Chhattisgarh) (147+180=327); Suresh Yadav (Odisha) (140+170=310).
Men's 102kg: Pardeep Singh (RSPB) (151+195=346); Shubham (SSCB) (145+180=325); Ashutosh Singh (Uttarakhand) (169+176=316).
Women's 76kg: Deepika Handa (Chandigarh) (92+119=211); Arockiya Alish (Tamil Nadu) (89+118=207); A Tumina Devi (Manipur) (83+104=187).
Women's 81kg: Sharsti Singh (RSPB) (93+112=205); Baljinder Kaur (Chandigarh) (83+112=195); T Dharshini (Tamil Nadu) (85+109=194).
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)