Malaysia’s Mohammad Aniq Bin Kasdan won gold lifting 249kg (107kg snatch and 142kg C&J) in his final attempt at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham.

He won silver in the Clean & Jerk men’s 55 kg event at the 2021 World Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He was also Malaysia’s first weightlifter to win a medal at the World Weightlifting Championships.

Also Read| CWG 2022: How much weight Indian silver medalist Sanket Sargar lifted

Aniq won gold at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 2021. He also took bronze in the Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi in 2021.

Aniq competed in the Commonwealth Games weightlifting 55kg category in 2022. He set a new Games record of 142kg and won Malaysia’s first medal as well as the Games’ first gold medal.

Datuk Ayub Rahmat, president of the Malaysian Weightlifting Federation (MWF), said of Kasdan, “This is Malaysia’s best ever performance in the history of the World Championships.” Aniq’s success comes as a timely boost for Malaysian weightlifting, which has been plagued by doping issues in recent years.

Also Read| Commonwealth Games 2022: Sanket Sargar wins silver, hands India first medal

Kasdan entered the 2022 Commonwealth Games as one of the favourites to win a medal after taking home silver at the world weightlifting championships in 2021 and bronze at the Southeast Asian Games in the same year.

In Birmingham, England, the Malaysian Weightlifting Federation (MWF) aimed for one gold and two silver medals.

Four years ago, Malaysian athletes Fazrul Azrie Mohdad (men’s 85kg bronze), Azroy Hazalwafie (men’s 56kg gold), and Aznil Bidin (men’s 62kg gold), who is competing later in the men’s 61kg division, brought home three medals from Gold Coast.

Also Read| Who is Sanket Sargar?

Erry Hidayat (men’s 73kg), Nasir Roslan (men’s81 kg), Hafiz Shamsuddin (men’s 109kg), Elly Cassandra Engelbert (women’s 55kg), and Marceeta Marlyne (women’s 59kg) are additional national weightlifters competing in the 2022 edition.