WATCH | Mirabai Chanu secures silver medal at Weightlifting World Championship, beats Tokyo Olympics winner

12/07/2022

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India's star weightlifter Mirabai Chanu once again rose to the occasion and secure a silver medal in women's49kg event at the Weightlifting World Championships in Bogota on Tuesday night. She lifted a total of 200kg (87kg in snatch and 113kg in clean and jerk), a touch lower than her personal best.

Chanu lost the gold medal to China's Jiang Huihua, who registered a total of 206kg. Meanwhile, she was able to beat China's Tokyo Olympics winner Hou Zhihui, who finished in the 3rd spot overall with 198kgs.

"Our aim was to get 200. A 200kg + total weight at every qualifying event will comfortably lead to qualification for the Paris Olympics, so we did not take much pressure in this event. Mirabai winning silver despite not exerting herself gives us confidence for the future," Vijay Sharma, the head coach of the Indian team, told The Bridge after the medal on Tuesday.

Also, this happens to be Chanu's second medal at the World Championship, after her gold in the 2017 edition. Earlier in August, Chanu had said, "My big battles, for now, will be against the Chinese lifters. In December, they shall be the top lifters at the World Championships. At the Asian Games too, where India has never won a medal, they will be the ones to look out for."

This was also the first international competition after the CWG, in which Chanu was participating. Her personal best for this weight category is 207kg (88kg in snatch and 119kg in clean and jerk).