Despite winning a couple of major medals over the past year, a major goal continues to evade Mirabai Chanu. As she heads into the 2023 Asian Weightlifting Championship, which kicks off in Jinju, South Korea, on Wednesday, apart from the gold, Chanu will also be looking to breach the 90kg mark in the snatch category.
When she arrived in Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games last year, winning gold seemed a foregone conclusion. The Tokyo Olympics silver medallist was facing a depleted field, with most of her biggest competitors from Korea and China missing. She would go on to comfortably step onto the top spot of the podium, but the 90kg snatch mark remained out of her reach.
Weightlifting scores are a combined total of lifts in two categories – snatch, where the lifter raises the barbell directly over their head, and clean and jerk, in which the lifter must first bring it up to their chest before lifting it over their head. Chanu’s best results have come thanks to her domination in clean and jerk, in which she holds the world record in her 49kg category with a 119kg lift in 2021.
A few months on from the CWG, Chanu would win another medal, this time in a competitive field, splitting the top two Chinese lifters Huiha Jiang and Zhihui Hou to get silver at the World Championships in December with a total score of 200kg. Her snatch lift, which ulitmately kept her short of gold, was 87kg, but the clean and jerk was a competition-best 113kg.
Olympic medallist Mirabai Chanu lifts a total of 200kg (87kg snatch + 113kg clean & jerk) (Photo Source: Indian Olympic Association / Twitter)
“I came close at CWG but couldn’t lift,” she told The Indian Express after her silver medal feat at the Worlds last year. Her personal best snatch lift is 88kg. Considering the fact that snatch lifts take place first, a low total puts pressure on her clean and jerk as well. “I will work on improving and focus on getting 90kg and more. I think I can go upto 91-92 kg.”
Chanu has shown no sign of a letdown in form ever since her silver medal in Tokyo two years ago, but as the next Olympic cycle gets into full flow, the personal improvement would be just as important to her as a medal. Chanu’s event will take place on Friday, May 5.
Why is this event significant?
The upcoming Asian Championships are one of the series of six remaining international events from which the results will be used for the Olympic Qualifying Ranking (OQR) collated by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) which will decide who can take part in the Olympics.
In each weight category, the top 10 lifters in the world (only one per country) will get an automatic quota for the Paris Olympics. The other two are reserved for the best performer from an unrepresented continent and a lifter from the host nation, France. This list of 10 will be decided according to the best results achieved from the seven qualification events. With the 2022 World Championships completed, four events are due to take place in 2023, and two in 2024.
In each weight category, the top 10 lifters in the world (only one per country) will get an automatic quota for the Paris Olympics. (FILE)
Effectively, this means that Chanu (who has already put up a formidable 200kg total at the Worlds) and the rest of the Indian contingent taking part in the championships this month have an opportunity to book a Olympic place if they are able to produce a total lift that is not beaten by nine other lifters (among non-Indians) across the next five events.
Internal competition
At CWG, the Indians put up an impressive showing by winning 10 medals. The competitive field this week, though, is likely to be a greater test.
CWG silver medallist Bindiyarani Devi also took part at the Worlds, finishing 25th in her 59kg category, but this will be the first test for Jeremy Lalrinnunga and Achinta Sheuli, who have been sidelined with injury since their gold in Birmingham. Lalrinnunga pulled his lower back and thigh muscles during his lift at the CWG, while Sheuli pulled out at the last minute from the world championships due to a tight hamstring.
The duo is also competing with each other for an Olympic place. While Sheuli’s 73kg category will also take place in Paris, Lalrinnunga’s 67kg category will not, meaning both lifters are competing for the same spot in the OQR. The former may have a natural size and momentum advantage, but in a conversation with The Indian Express earlier this year, national weightlifting coach Vijay Sharma had hinted that Lalrinnunga might be promoted to 73kg and Sheuli might move to a higher weight category.
With six qualifying events and over a year left for Paris, both form and fitness could change the situation with time, making the Asian Championships a significant marker for this Olympic cycle.
Shubham Todkar (men’s 61kg) and Narayana Ajith (men’s 73kg) make up the rest of the Indian contingent.
Olympic medallist Mirabai Chanu lifts a total of 200kg (87kg snatch + 113kg clean & jerk) (Photo Source: Indian Olympic Association / Twitter) 
Olympic medallist Mirabai Chanu lifts a total of 200kg (87kg snatch + 113kg clean & jerk) (Photo Source: Indian Olympic Association / Twitter)
In each weight category, the top 10 lifters in the world (only one per country) will get an automatic quota for the Paris Olympics. (FILE)
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