Ace Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu ended her long wait for an Asian Games medal by winning silver in the women’s 49kg event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Wednesday.
The 32-year-old lifted a combined 198kg, including 87kg in the snatch and 111kg in the clean and jerk, at the Nagoya City Trade and Industry Centre to claim the silver.
Chanu became India’s first Asian Games weightlifting medallist since Karnam Malleswari won silver at the 1998 Bangkok Games.
North Korea’s two-time Asian Games and world champion Ri Song-gum won gold with a total of 210kg, comprising a 94kg snatch and 121kg clean and jerk. Indonesia’s Wijayana Luluk Diani Tri took bronze with 191kg, including 87kg in the snatch and 103kg in the clean and jerk.
The medal completed Chanu’s collection at the three major multi-sport events — the Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. She also became only the second Indian weightlifter after Malleswari to win medals across the Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and World Championships, besides Asian and Commonwealth Championships.
Chanu has an Olympic silver medal, a world title and three Commonwealth Games gold medals to her name, but the Asian Games podium had remained elusive.
She made her Asian Games debut in 2014, finishing ninth. An injury ruled her out of the 2018 Jakarta edition, while she finished fourth at the 2023 Hangzhou Games after a thigh injury affected her clean-and-jerk attempts.
Three years later, Chanu returned to Japan, where she had won Olympic silver at the Tokyo Games, and finally secured the Asian Games medal she had been chasing since 2014.
Her career has also included significant setbacks. At the Rio 2016 Olympics, she failed to register a valid lift. Five years later, she bounced back to win silver at the Tokyo Olympics.
At the Aichi-Nagoya Games, Chanu opened with an 87kg snatch and successfully lifted 111kg in the clean and jerk to finish with 198kg overall.
Her silver also ended India’s 28-year wait for a weightlifting medal at the Asian Games.
(IANS Inputs)
