The final time India gained an Asiad medal was manner again in 1998 in Bangkok, when Karnam Malleswari had secured a silver. On the final version of the Video games, a four-member Indian weightlifting contingent had returned empty-handed. Tokyo Olympics silver medallist and reigning CWG champion, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, desires to finish the nation’s lengthy await a weightlifting medal.
In actual fact, the diminutive Manipuri seeks to finish India’s 72-year-long await an Asiad weightlifting gold when she makes her competes on the Hangzhou Video games within the ladies’s 49kg division.
Mirabai was compelled to overlook the Jakarta Video games in 2018 as a result of a again harm. This time, she desires so as to add the one medal lacking from her glittering trophy cupboard with a prime of the rostrum end in Hangzhou. The weightlifting occasions can be held from September 30 to October 7.
“Each time I sit alone, once I see my outcomes, what I’ve achieved and what’s left, then I discuss to myself. I haven’t got an Asian Video games medal,” Mirabai stated on the primary episode of timesofindia.com’s new sequence ‘TOI Locker Room’. “At instances, I’m indignant with myself. My purpose is 90kg (in snatch), but it surely hasn’t occurred. So, I ask myself why is not it occurring? Sir (coach Vijay Sharma) additionally says I’ve to the touch it (90 kg mark in snatch) on this (Asiad) competitors,” she stated.
TOI Locker Room | Mirabai Chanu talks about life, weightlifting & far more
To arrange properly for the Asiad, Mirabai even skipped the World Weightlifting Championships 2023 by taking part within the weigh-in. Nevertheless, the highway to medal glory will not be simple for the previous world champion.
She’s going to face robust competitors from Chinese language lifters Hou Zhihui and Jiang Huihua within the area. Mirabai had held the world report for clear & jerk with a carry of 119kg, earlier than Huihua bettered it final Tuesday with a heave of 120kg. The Chinese language lifter additionally created a brand new world report for the overall carry as she lifted 215kg, two kilograms higher than the earlier world mark of 213kg.
“I will give my greatest and never be afraid of any problem. I’m able to face the competitors from the Chinese language lifters. I’ve labored onerous for the Asiad. I additionally haven’t any harm issues,” Mirabai stated.
She not too long ago underwent a five-month rehabilitation programme on the SQUAT College in St. Louis after having hip surgical procedure in December 2022. Giving Mirabai firm can be Bindyarani Devi, who took residence the gold medal within the Commonwealth Championships in 2021. She can be competing within the ladies’s 55kg class.
