India’s weightlifting icon Mirabai Chanu won India’s first gold medal in the women’s 49kg weightlifting event at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Heading into the Games as a heavy favorite, Chano won the event with a combined effort of 201kg in the snatch and clean and jerk.
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This is Chanu’s third medal at the Commonwealth Games, after silver in the 2014 edition in Glasgow and gold in Gold Coast 2018 in the 48kg category.
Hopes were high on the champion weightlifter from Manipur and the Rio 2020 Olympic silver medalist came out for the country’s cause.
The 27-year-old from Imphal had to shoulder the burden of being the bookies’ favorite to win gold in Birmingham and delivered without a hiccup.
Ahead of her maiden attempt, she was the perfect picture of calm as she was pictured backstage while all the other competitors were doing their best to mount a challenge worthy of upsetting the undisputed Indian weightlifting superstar. .
But, it took only one attempt for Chanu to overtake his rivals. She was one of the Snatchers and lifted 84 kg in her first attempt in the Snatch variant of the event.
And with his second attempt, he broke his personal best, the Commonwealth Games record and the Commonwealth record with a successful lift of 88kg. But, he was not there.
Despite not succeeding in his third attempt at the Snitch, the coveted 90kg mark, he entered the clean and jerk variant of the event with a commanding 12kg lead over his nearest rival.
Mirabai Chanu opened her clean and jerk effort with 109 kg and the defending champion sealed the title once again with her first effort.
But, she didn’t stop there as she upped the challenge in her second attempt when she lifted 113kg. She attempted to lift 115 kg which she failed to complete.
His efforts earned India its third medal of the Games and on the day he followed fellow weightlifters Sanketh Sargar and Gururaja Pujari to climb the podium.
Sargar opened India’s medal tally with a silver medal performance in the men’s 55kg weightlifting category at this edition of the CWG.
Pujari hailed Sargar’s silver medal of his own as he finished third with a hard-fought finish that went down to his last attempt.
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