Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Mirabai Chanu won the silver medal at the Weightlifting World Championships in Bogota, Colombia, late on Tuesday, despite a wrist injury.
Chanu, the 2017 World Champion leads a four-member Indian squad at the competition, which is the first qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympics, but is not compulsory to attend.
The 28-year-old from Imphal lifted 87 kg in snatch and 113 kg in clean and jerk for an overall 200 kg. Her effort earned her a silver medal in the two individual categories and for her total score as well. According to PTI, medals are awarded seperately for each category and for the total weight as well, but only the total is considered for Olympic qualification.
Extremely humbled and grateful for this victory. Small step towards our eventual goal of an Olympic gold.
— Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (@mirabai_chanu) December 7, 2022
Gratitude to my Coach Vijay sir, our President IWLF Sahdev Yadav sir, Sports Authority of India, all the stakeholders and well wishers. Will always make you proud 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/eTBsmdTsXR
Mirabai also won the 🥈 in clean and jerk 🔥 pic.twitter.com/S4xjT8JF50
— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) December 7, 2022
She finished second behind China’s Niang Huihua, who registered lifts of 93 kg in snatch and 113 kg in clean and jerk for a total of 206 kg. Tokyo gold medallist Hou Zhihua won broze for a total of 198 kg (89 kg + 109 kg).
Mirabai after winning silver said, “It’s an emotionally proud moment for to bring another world championship medal back home after five long years.”
“The competition at the world championship is always intense with the best Olympian competing to at the highest level. I had a wrist pain but I am always ready to push myself to cross the line for my country.”
“We couldn’t do much (about the injury) because we didn’t want to skip the World Championships. Now we will focus on her wrist because we have a lot of time before the next event,” head coach Vijay Sharma said to PTI about the injury Chanu picked up during a training session in September.
“We were not taking any pressure for this event. This is the weight Mira lifts regularly. From now we will start increasing the weights and improving.”
The Indian started the competition, her first international event since the Commonwealth Games, with an 84 kg lift and eventually raised her mark to 87 kg in her third attempt.
She entered the clean and jerk category with a 111 kg lift and managed to improve it to 113 kg before ending the competition with her second medal at the World Championships.
