Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Mirabai Chanu will spearhead a four-member Indian squad at the Weightlifting World Championships, which will be held in Bogota, Colombia, from December 5 to 16.
Chanu, the 2017 world champion will compete in the 49kg event, while Commonwealth Games 2022 silver medallist Bindyrani Devi (women’s 59kg), gold medallist at Birmingham Achinta Sheuli (men’s 73kg) and CWG 2022 bronze medallist Gurdeep Singh (men’s 109kg+) have also made it to the squad.
The competition serves as the first qualification event for the 2024 Paris Olympics, but is not compulsory to attend. According to PTI, the 2024 Olympics qualification requires athletes to compete at the 2023 World Championships and 2024 World Cup.
Birmingham 2022 gold and silver medallists Jeremy Lalrinnunga and Sanket Sargar respectively are unavailable to compete due to injuries they sustained at the Commonwealth Games.
“Jeremy is still recovering from the injury he suffered during the Commonwealth Games, so he will not play in these world championships. Many lifters from the CWG squad are nursing injuries, so we have selected the four lifters who are fit,” head coach Vijay Sharma told PTI.