Glasgow, Sunday
Kenya’s rising star Joshua Amunga Mboya has bagged the country’s first medal at the 2026 Commonwealth Games by lifting bronze in the 60-kilogramme weightlifting competition at the SEC Armadillo in Glasgow today.
Mboya finished third in the snatch with a lift of 115kg behind India’s Rishikanta Singh Chanambam and Malaysia’s Bin Kasdan Mohamad Aniq who both lifted a new Commonwealth Games record 121kg.
And in the Clean and Jerk that followed, Mboya recorded 145kg to again finish third behind Rishikanta (143kg) and Bin Kasdan who lifted another Commonwealth Games record of 152kg to finish with a total Snatch / Clean and Jerk total of 273kg ahead of silver medalist Rishikanta (264kg) and Mboya (244kg).
Kenya’s Joshua Amunga Mboya in action in the 60-kilogramme weightlifting competition at the SEC Armadillo in Glasgow on Sunday.
Prior to Sunday, Kenya had never won a medal in conventional Olympic weightlifting at the Commonwealth Games and was facing a 32-year medal drought in the sport.
While Kenyan athletes have won historical medals in the distinct sport of Para-Powerlifting (bench press), conventional weightlifting (Snatch, Clean and Jerk) has remained elusive.
The closest Kenya has ever come to weightlifting success was at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, where lifter Collins Okoth famously won three bronze medals under the older Games format that awarded individual medals per discipline.
Kenya’s weightlifting team in Glasgow
In Glasgow, a fresh four-member Kenyan weightlifting team is actively competing namely Joshua Amunga Mboya (Men's 60kg), Rachel Achieng (Women's 77kg - team captain), Juliana Anyango (Women's 86kg) and Janet Oduor (Women's 48kg).
Mboya, the African 60kg youth and junior weightlifting champion, stepped into the spotlight in 2022 as a Form Three student at Kamenu Secondary School in Thika, when he stunned the experienced Benjamin Osiemo during the national selection trials.
Following his breakout performance, Mboya earned a spot on Team Kenya and transitioned to the global stage, representing the country at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Weightlifting Championships in Bogota, Colombia in 2022, and again in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2023.
Competing at the 2024 African Games in Accra, Ghana, he placed fifth in the men's 61kg category with a combined lift of 206kg, consisting of a 93kg snatch and a 113kg clean and jerk. Later that year, he dominated the African Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships in Nairobi, securing three gold medals.
Training out of the Pumwani Sports Grounds gym in Nairobi alongside his older brother, fellow lifter Kavesa Mboya, Joshua has set his sights on the sport's highest milestones.
His athletic development has been supported by the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK), which awarded him the prestigious Olympic Solidarity Scholarship to support his preparation for elite events.
Kenya’s rising star Joshua Amunga Mboya focuses ahead of his 60-kilogramme weightlifting competition's Clean and Jerk section at the SEC Armadillo in Glasgow on Sunday.
Grassroots, community-driven athletic centre
Having secured qualification for the 2026 Commonwealth Games based on his international ranking, Mboya continues to train rigorously toward his goal of breaking a world record in the under-66kg division.
His training base, the Pumwani Sports Grounds gym facility (historically associated with the Pumwani Social Hall hub in Majengo, Nairobi) operates as a grassroots, community-driven athletic centre and is highly regarded for producing elite Kenyan lifters despite lacking the high-tech, commercial luxury found in upscale Nairobi fitness centers.
Because it caters primarily to high-performance, community-backed athletes like Mboya, the training regimens here are characterized by a raw, highly focused, and disciplined approach to Olympic weightlifting.
At Pumwani, athletes follow progressive overload and macrocycle with the lifters focusing heavily on volume, performing multiple sets of high repetitions to build foundational muscle hypertrophy and work capacity.
At the peaking phase, as major tournaments approach (such as the Commonwealth Games), the volume drops drastically, and the intensity spikes. Lifters shift to heavy, low-rep sets (1–3 repetitions) at 90 percent + of their one-rep max (1RM) to maximize absolute explosive power.
The Kenyan corner attends to Joshua Amunga Mboya's injury after his final lift at the 2026 Commonwealth Games' 60-kilogramme weightlifting competition at the SEC Armadillo in Glasgow.
The camp’s Olympic Lift Specialization’s daily regimen revolves around perfecting the two contested Olympic disciplines: the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk.
One of the unique features of the Pumwani training ecosystem is its intense, community-driven environment where the elite lifters train directly alongside younger prospects. Senior athletes and local veteran lifters actively coach the junior squad on minor technical flaws.
