Asian Weightlifting Championships 2023: Mirabai Chanu finishes sixth on return
May 05, 2023
Jinju [South Korea], May 5 : Olympic champion Mirabai Chanu finished in the sixth position at the Asian Weightlifting Championships 2023 in Jinju, South Korea on Friday.
She was back in action after a break of five months during which she underwent a rehabilitation programme.
She lifted 85kg in snatch, modest by her standards, and 109kg in clean and jerk for a combined lift of 194kg (85kg + 109kg). Chanu ended in sixth place on the overall leaderboard in the women's 49kg category. Her personal best is 88kg in the snatch and 119kg in the clean and jerk as per olympics.com.
Meanwhile, world champion Jiang Huihua of China won the gold medal after she pulled a combined lift of 207kg (94kg+113kg). The Chinese Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Hou Zhihui clinched the Silver medal Hou Zhihui of China with 204kg (93kg+111kg). Thailand's Surodchana Khambao won bronze with an effort of 200kg (90kg+110kg).
Chanu has only one medal at the Asian Championships, which came at the 2020 edition held in Tashkent. She claimed a bronze medal for a total lift of 205kg, including the world record clean and jerk of 119kg.
Chanu began with an 85kg lift in the snatch. She opted for 88kg on her second and third attempts but failed to pull it off. However, the effort placed her fifth in the snatch category.
In the first attempt, Chanu lifted 109kg in clean and jerk however to avoid injury, she chose to skip her next two attempts. The eventual gold medallist, Jiang Huihua, went for 120kg but failed to create a new world record.
With the combined lift of 194kg in the event, Chanu improved her score in the Olympic Qualification Ranking (OQR) to 400. She has been placed second on the list with Jiang Huihua who is leading the OQR table with 413.
The Asian Weightlifting Championships 2023 is the second in the series of qualifying events for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
