One of India's premier medal hopes at the Commonwealth Games 2022, Mirabai Chanu secured the country's first gold medal in the CWG 2022 when she finished first in the women’s 49 kg weightlifting event in Birmingham on Saturday.
In the process, Mirabai defended her CWG crown and smashed the Commonwealth and Commonwealth Games’ weightlifting record by lifting 201 kg. Notably, Chanu won the gold medal in the Commonwealth Games 2018 at Goldcoast and took a massive 12kg lead over her nearest opponent, courtesy of her second throw in the snatch round.
Chanu started with a lift of 84 kg, then created a new Commonwealth Games record (88 kg) in snatch. But she failed in the 90 kg. In the clean and jerk, she started with a lift of 109 kg, then made it 113 kg. But she failed to lift 115 kg in the final attempt, thus settling for a new Commonwealth Games record of 201 kg.
Chanu was the favourite to win gold in 49kg as she had the best record among all those in the fray. Her 203kg combined lift in Tokyo qualified her for the event and is 35kg better than the next best qualifier, Stella Peter Kingsley of Nigeria who lifted 168kg at the world championships last year.
This is India’s third medal of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, with Sanket Sargar clinching the silver medal in the men's 55 kg category and P Gururaja winning a bronze medal in the men’s 61kg category earlier in the day.
"I know what the fans want. I will try my best to do well in the CWG. After Tokyo, I have been focusing mainly on my technique and right now I can only assure you that everything is fine with my training and technique. I have done a lot of work on that," Chanu had said before the CWG games.
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