Mirabai Chanu wins gold
Doha, December 20
Former world champion weightlifter Mirabai Chanu notched up the women’s 49kg category gold medal to open India’s account at the 6th Qatar International Cup here today. The 25-year-old won gold with an effort of 194kg in the Olympics qualifying silver level event, the points from which will come in handy when the final rankings for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are done.
To qualify for Tokyo, a weightlifter must compete in at least one event in each of the three periods of six months (spread over November 2018 to April 2020), in at least six events overall and in at least one gold and one silver level event each.
Chanu’s performance today was, however, way below her personal best of 201kg which she lifted during this year’s World Championships in Thailand.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games gold-medallist managed to register only one clean lift each in both the snatch, and clean and jerk categories. She manged to lift 83kg in her second attempt in snatch but then failed to clear 87kg in her final try. In the clean and jerk section, Chanu lifted 111kg in her first attempt but was unable to lift 115kg and 116kg in her final two attempts.
The French duo of Anais Michel (172kg) and Manon Lorentz (165kg) won silver and bronze, respectively.
Earlier this year at the World Championships, Chanu had breached the much anticipated 200kg mark by lifting her personal best in all three sections. In snatch, she lifted 87kg, followed by 114kg in clean and jerk for a total of 201kg. China’s Jiang Huihua (212kg) had won the gold.
Chanu, who had won 48kg gold at the 2017 edition in USA with an overall effort of 194kg, returned to action in February following a lower-back injury. She had missed the World Championships and Asian Games in 2018. The Manipuri had also clinched the gold medal in 49kg at the EGAT Cup, which was the first of the six Olympics qualifying events for her.
Jeremy wins silver
In the men’s 67kg category, India’s Jeremy Lalrinnunga won the silver medal with a total lift of 306kg (140kg in snatch and 166kg in clean and jerk). — PTI
