Indian weightlifting star Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, returning to the international stage after a pandemic-enforced one-year break, did not com...
Indian weightlifting star Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, returning to the international stage after a pandemic-enforced one-year break, did not complete her first two lifts in the snatch section at the Asian Championship in Tashkent on 17 April. The situation was all too uncomfortably familiar for her.
She stepped up for her third attempt, the pressure to register an attempt immense. She managed to life 86kg in snatch. Not bad.
And it was going to get better.
She followed it with a world record of 119kg in clean and jerk for a total score of 205kg. The effort fetched her a bronze medal, as the snatch weight wasn’t quite enough. But the weight of mental burden seems to have definitely reduced.
Addressing the media after winning an Asian Championship bronze and setting a new world record, fielded multiple questions about her Rio Olympics heartbreak in an articulate, almost matter of fact way.
Seen as a genuine medal prospect at the 2016 Games, she could not lift in any of her three attempts in the clean and jerk section. It was brutal to not even properly finish in your first Olympics appearance.
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Since then she has won gold at the...
