Eight Indian weightlifters, including Olympic silver medalist Mirabai Chanu, will go to the United States on Tuesday for a three-and-a-half-week strength and conditioning training camp in St. Louis and instead, miss the Asian Championships, as reported by PTI.
The Asian Championships are slated to take place from October 6 to October 16 in Manama, Bahrain. Commonwealth Games medalists Jeremy Lalrinnunga, Achinta Sheuli, Sanket Sargar, Bindyarani Devi, Gurdeep Singh, previous CWG champion R V Rahul, and Asian Championship gold medalist Jhilli Dalabehra will accompany Chanu to St. Louis.
While Sargar will go through rehabilitation after having surgery for the elbow injury he sustained during his competition at the CWG, the other lifters will also work with Dr. Aaron Horschig, a former weightlifter who is now a physical therapist and strength and conditioning coach.
“We will be in USA for 23-24 days. It is the off season so we will have a strength program there,” National weightlifting head coach Vijay Sharma said to PTI.
He added: “All these lifters have small niggles like Gurdeep has some issue in his wrist. Sanket will go through proper rehab. We want that everyone is perfectly fit for the World Championships.”
“The lifters who have returned from the CWG will not compete in the Asian Championships. We will be sending our B team. The focus is on the World Championship which is a qualifying event for the Paris Olympics,” Sharma said.
The World Championship is the qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympics, and it will take place from December 5 to December 15 in Bagota, Colombia.