Since winning silver in the last Commonwealth games in Glasgow four years back, Saikom Mirabai Chanu has been making steady strides in the world of weightlifting. Her gold at the World Championships in 2017 was a culmination of all the hard work that the Manipuri star put in over the course of the past few years.
One disappointment that is sure to rankle her is likely to be her campaign at the Rio Olympics. She returned from the mega event empty-handed. The 23-year-old’s consequent triumph at the World Championships was a testament to her perseverance.
The Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, which get underway from Thursday is an ideal event for Chanu to gauge where she stands ahead of the Asian Games set to be held later this year and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
With fewer challengers in fray, Chanu will be hoping for nothing short of gold.
“The competition in CWG is less as compared to Asian Games or World Championships,” so it will be a bit easy in Gold Coast. I can say I will win the gold. It should not be difficult for me to do that,” Mirabai was quoted as saying by PTI ahead of the event.
Chanu will be competing in the women’s 48 kg category and is expected to open India’s medal account. The 23-year-old’s personal best of 194 kg stands over 10 kg more than her nearest rival in the competition. None of the lifters in her category have touched even 180 kg with her likely closest rival, Amanda Braddock of Canada, having a personal best of 173 kg.
The CWG record in this weight category is 175 kg (77+98). Chanu, though, had a total lift of 194 kg (85+109) to win the gold in the World Championships in November, becoming only the second Indian weightlifter to achieve the feat.
She will be hoping to clear the mark easily and would be expecting to turn her silver from Glasgow to a gold at Gold Coast.
Chanu, though, will do well not to exert herself too much with the Asian Games around the corner. The event in Jakarta will be high on her priority list, and will be a natural next target for the world champion.
Setting the tone
With her event slated to be held on the first day of the competition, a gold for Chanu will set the tone for the rest of India’s weightlifting contingent.
In Glasgow, Indian weightlifters had bagged as many as 12 medals, including three golds.
S Sathish Kumar and Kh Sanjita Chanu will be looking to repeat their gold medal performances of the last edition.
The focus will on Sanjita, who won gold in women’s 48kg, has climbed up a weight division and will be competing in 53kg.
In the men’s category, Sathish and Vikas Thakur are the only two lifters, to have competed in Galsgow. While, Sathish is defending his 77kg title, Thakur, who had bagged silver in 85kg but this time he would be taking part in 94kg.
In the women’s category, other than the two Chanu’s Punam Yadav and Vandna Gupta, were part of the Indian contingent last time around as well. Punam had finished with a bronze in 69kg, while Vandna was fourth in 63kg. They too will be hoping to improve their performance.
Squad
Men: Gururaja (56kg), Muthupandi Raja (62kg), Deepak Lather (69kg), S Sathish Kumar (77kg), Ragala Venkat Rahul (85kg), Vikas Thakur (94kg), Pardeep Singh (105kg) and Gurdeep Singh (+105kg).
Women: Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (48kg), Kh Sanjita Chanu (53kg), Saraswati Rout (58kg), Vandna Gupta (63kg), Punam Yadav (69kg), Seema (75kg), Lalchhanhimi (90kg) and Purnima Pandey (+90kg).
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