India’s Ajaya Babu Valluri finishes 16th at World Weightlifting Championships

Forde, Oct 7 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Ajaya Babu Valluri, a Commonwealth champion, finished 16th in the men’s 79kg category at the 2025 World Weightlifting Championships here on Tuesday.

Competing in Group C, the 20-year-old Indian weightlifter lifted a total weight of 323kg (146kg in the snatch and 177kg in the clean and jerk), finishing 16th out of 39 competitors.

The performance fell 12kg short of his gold medal-winning total of 335kg (152kg + 183kg) at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Ahmedabad this August. His result from the championships in Ahmedabad had helped him secure his place in next year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

At the 2025 World Weightlifting Championships, Ajaya started the weightlifting competition confidently, successfully lifting 146kg in his first snatch attempt but failing to clear 150kg on the following two tries. In the clean and jerk, he lifted 172kg and 177kg before an unsuccessful attempt at 180kg.

Indonesia’s Rizki Juniansyah, the gold medallist in the 73 kg category at the Paris 2024 Olympics, set a new world record of 204kg in the clean and jerk with a lift of 204 kg, achieving a combined total of 361kg that also included a 162kg snatch.

Ri Chong-song from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea won silver with a total lift of 360kg (163kg + 197kg), while Egypt’s Mohamed Younes took bronze on countback after also lifting 360kg (162kg + 198kg).

Notably, earlier in the championships, Mirabai Chanu lifted a total of 199kg (84kg + 115kg) to secure silver in the women’s 48kg category on the opening day of the World Weightlifting Championships. She is the only Indian athlete to have won a medal at this year’s World Championships so far.

In the 63kg category, India’s Nirupama Devi lifted a total of 216kg (93kg in snatch and 123kg in clean and jerk), placing ninth out of 35 competitors at the championships.

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