Tokyo: Former World Champion Mirabai Chanu will be in focus for her high medal-winning chances at the Tokyo Olympics here. Mirabai Chanu is hoping to exorcise the ghosts of a disappointing Rio Games. She has it in her to write a new chapter in India’s weightlifting history. Mirabai is competing in the 49kg category. She is being considered a sure shot medal prospect for India. Her personal best of 205kg is only second to China’s Hou Zhihui’s effort of 213kg in the eight-woman field.
The hype is similar to the one five years ago in Rio. However, Mirabai disappointed as she could manage only one lift from her six attempts. She could not even get an overall total in women’s 48kg event. The diminutive Manipuri will desperately hope for a different script this time round, one that involves a podium.
Karnam Malleswari is the only Indian weightlifter who has an Olympic medal to her credit, a bronze in the 69kg category at the 2000 Sydney Games. It was the first time when the weightlifting arena was opened to women.
Mirabai has proved her mettle as a fighter post the Rio Games. She has won medals in almost all marquee events, including gold in the World Championship and the Commonwealth Games. She also has a bronze in the Asian Championships. The coveted Olympic medal will be the cherry on top.
While Mirabai will have one eye on her competitors’ barbells, the 26-year-old’s main battle will be with herself. In recent times, her performance in the snatch section has often proved to be her downfall in important competitions.
Chanu has managed to match Zhihui, the favourite to win the gold, in the clean and jerk category. However, her personal best of 88kg in snatch pales in comparison to the Chinese lifter’s world record effort of 96kg.
Even the USA’s Delacruz Jourdan Elizabeth has a better personal best – 89kg – than the Indian’s. It should be stated here that Aisah Windy Cantika of Indonesia had managed to pip Chanu to win a bronze in the snatch section at the Asian Championship in April.
It is expected that Chanu will try to better her world record lift of 119kg in the clean and jerk category, should the competition demand it.
“Our competitors are the lifters from China, USA and Indonesia. We have worked on the snatch. But the weights will be decided based on what the others are doing. We don’t want to take unnecessary risks,” national coach Vijay Sharma said Friday from Tokyo. “At the Asian Championship we had the freedom to experiment. However, the Olympics comes once in four years, the strategy will be different,” he added.
Interestingly, Chanu has set the highest entry weight of 210kg, which is five kilograms more than her personal best. She is followed by Zhihui (205kg), who had lifted 213kg (96g+117kg) at the Asian championship.