Mirabai lifts 203kg for new record, gets gold

Kolkata, February 4

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Former world champion Mirabai Chanu bettered her own national record by lifting a total of 203kg to win the 49kg gold in the National Weightlifting Championships.

The 25-year-old Manipuri, representing Railways here, lifted 88kg in snatch in her second attempt and 115kg in clean and jerk for a total of 203kg. Mirabai’s previous best of 201kg had come at the World Championships in Thailand in September last year, where she had finished fourth. Today’s effort has put her in the fourth place in the world rankings behind China’s Jiang Huihua (212kg) and Hou Zhihui (211kg), and North Korean Ri Song Gum (209kg).

Mirabai was targeting 207kg but lost her balance in the final attempts in both snatch and clean and jerk. She started by lifting 85kg in snatch, and raised the weight to 88kg for her second attempt, which was 1kg more than the national record and her personal best of 87kg. Mirabai looked calm as she entered the stage with a big scream and she lifted it at one go. The bar was then raised by another 2kg to 90kg, but this time she lost balance and could not complete the attempt.

She, however, looked supremely confident in her favourite clean and jerk category as she lifted 111kg and 115kg in her first two successful attempts, bettering her previous national record of 114kg. For her final attempt, Mirabai first asked for 116kg but after a quick rethink, she raised it to 117kg. She made a clean lift to the rack position and took a five-second pause before going for the jerk. However, she failed in her attempt and had to settle for a total of 203kg, bettering three national records in the process. — PTI