Olympic silver medallist Mirabai Chanu has been working hard on her snatch technique but her efforts did not bear fruit on Thursday as the Manipuri lifter failed short of bettering her own national record in the section, despite comfortably winning the gold medal at the inaugural Khelo India Weightlifting League at Nagrota Bagwan in Himachal Pradesh.
The 27-year-old started off with a successful 86kg lift in snatch before her futile attempts of lifting 89kg left her short of shattering the national record. Eventually, she picked the yellow metal with a total lift of 191kg (86kg + 105kg).
The national record and her personal best in snatch stands at 88kg, which Chanu had lifted during the National Championships in 2020. She has been eyeing the magical mark of 90kgs in the section for the past couple of years, and has been working with Dr Aaron Horschig in the US for the same.
In clean and jerk too, Mirabai wasn’t anywhere close to her world record hoist of 119kg, and did not bother for another attempt.
However, there were no close competitors for Mirabai as Gyaneshwari Yadav 170kg (78kg+92) finished a distant second followed by former 45kg Asian Weightlifting Championship gold medallist Jhilli Dalabehra 166kg (75kg+91kg) in third.
Gyaneshwari pocketed the gold in the junior 49kg event with a 170kg (78kg+92kg) lift while Sanju Devi 154kg (70kg+84kg) and V Rithika 153kg (67kg+86kg) finished with silver and bronze, respectively.
Meanwhile, in the 49kg Youth event, Maharashtra's Aarti Tatgunti bagged the gold with a lift of 148kg (65kg+83kg), while Panchami Sonowal of Assam lifted 143 kg (63kg+80) to take the silver. Haryana's Himanshee lifted 132 kg (63kg+69kg) for the bronze.
The tournament will help the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) maintain a robust national ranking system while also providing additional competition to the lifters of the country.
