Finance
Mirabai Chanu, a star Indian weightlifter, overcame wrist pain to win silver in the women’s 49kg division at the World Weightlifting Championships 2022 here.
Mirabai won her second world championships medal with a total weight of 200kg (87kg snatch + 113kg clean and jerk). She won gold in 2017 and came in fourth place in 2019.
Jiang Huihua of China won her third world championship gold medal with a combined lift of 206 kg (93kg+113kg), while Hou Zhihui of China took bronze with 198kg (89kg+109kg).
During training in September, the 28-year-old Indian injured her wrist. Despite the injury, she competed in the National Games the following month.
“It’s an emotionally proud moment for me 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 at the highest level,” said Mirabai after winning the medal.
“I had a wrist pain but I am always ready to push myself to cross the line for my country….I hope I’ll be able to give India more of such moments, preferably a Gold at the Asian Games and Paris Olympics as well,” she added.
Mirabai began with an 85kg snatch lift, which earned her a silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She attempted 87kg on her second attempt but was unable to complete it before reaching the 87kg mark on her third attempt. On the snatch leaderboard, she finished fifth out of 11 women.
Mirabai struggled with her left wrist again in clean and jerk, her first international meet since winning the Commonwealth Games 2022 in August. The Indian weightlifter failed her first attempt, lifted 111kg on her second attempt, and matched eventual gold medalist Jiang Huihua’s 113kg on her third attempt to place third.
Jiang Huihua, who won the snatch event, appeared to be on track to win gold in the overall category. She gave a shot at breaking Mirabai Chanu’s world record of 119kg clean and jerk with a 120 kg attempt in her final lift but failed.
Mirabai Chanu won silver in both the clean and jerk and the overall. Medals are awarded separately for snatch, clean and jerk, and total lift at the world championships, as opposed to the Olympics, where a single medal is awarded for total lift.
Meanwhile, Tokyo 2020 champion Hou Zhihui competed to avoid injury and did not go for her final attempt after previously lifting 109kg for bronze.
“It’s been a truly proud moment for me to watch Mira grab another medal at the world championship after half a decade. It was a little challenging for her due to the wrist issue. But she managed to beat two of the top athletes and lifted 200kg so effortlessly,” said Vijay Sharma, national coach, Indian Weightlifting.
“Seeing Mira I believe we are on the right track and she is definitely going to only work harder to bring out her A- game in the upcoming Asian Games and the Olympics,” she added.
The World Weightlifting Championships 2022 are the first in a series of qualifying events for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
Commonwealth Games 2022 gold medalist Achinta Sheuli (men’s 73kg), Commonwealth Games silver medalist Bindyarani Devi (women’s 59kg), and Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Gurdeep Singh (men’s +109kg) are also competing for India.
