Ajaya Babu glad to emulate dad’s CWG medal, but hungry for gold

Sixteen years back, Valluri Srinivasa Rao had bagged a men’s 56kg bronze medal at the Delhi Commonwealth Games (CWG). By striking silver in Glasgow, Rao’s son Ajaya Babu has again put Vizianagaram district’s Kondavelagada village on the weightlifting map.Ajaya lifted a total of 330kg (149kg snatch + 181kg clean and jerk) in the 79kg category, falling one kilogram short of Malaysia’s Erry Hidayat Muhammad. Rao was happy with his son’s feat but Ajaya, while sharing his father’s enthusiasm, kept repeating in his conversation with The Indian Express, “If I did not make a few mistakes, I could have won gold.”Right from the qualification rounds earlier this year, Rao was confident that Ajaya would deliver a medal based on how well he was performing. “I wanted him to go into badminton,” laughed R