Mirabai kickstarts India’s gold quest
World champion breaks six marks for nation’s first win at Games
With a record breaking performance, weightlifter S Mirabai Chanu bagged India’s first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday. In the process, she set Commonwealth and Commonwealth Games records in the 48kg category.
Mirabai, who was spotted and trained by Kunjarani Devi, lifted a combined weight of 196kg, two more than her own record.
The reigning world champion started with a snatch of 80kg and took it to 86kg, a Games record. In clean and jerk, she started at 103 kg to break the Games record and then lifted 107 and 110 kg to shatter the record in total also. This is her second Commonwealth Games medal after the silver at Glasgow 2014.
The silver went to Marie Ranaivosova of Mauritius (76kg+94kg), while the bronze was won by Sri Lankan Dinusha Gomes (70kg+85kg). Her biggest challenger, Amanda Braddock of Canada, failed to complete a single lift in clean and jerk after managing a best of 76kg in snatch.
The Indian lifter was the favourite to win gold in 48kg as she had the best record among all those in fray. She had won the world championship last year in USA, having got the better of her strong Chinese competitors.
However, a bigger challenge awaits her at the Jakarta Asian Games in August. She is aware that the Chinese will be coming hard at her. That is why she wants to do her best at the Asian Games.
“I want to do well at the Asian Games and win gold there. The Asian region is the toughest in weightlifting. The Chinese will be there as also the lifters from Thailand and Korea. So, that will be a tougher competition. But I am confident of a good performance,” Chanu told reporters after her gold medal-winning feat. “I knew the competition will not be tough here so I went on doing my own without bothering about what others were doing.”
Chanu had a disappointing time at Rio Olympics in 2016, faltering in clean and jerk after doing well in snatch. She now wants to make up for that miss. After the Asian Games, she wants to concentrate on the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
“I was very sad and disappointed after the Rio Olympics and want to make up for that by winning gold in 2020. But that would be only after the Asian Games. As for now, my entire focus is on the Asian Games,” added Chanu.