Mirabai Chanu betters own national record to secure gold

Kolkata: Mirabai Chanu on Tuesday bettered her own national record en route to winning the ongoing senior National Weightlifting Championships in Kolkata. Mirabai lifted a total of 203kg to win the 49kg gold, bettering her previous record of 201 which she had achieved at the World Championships in Thailand last year.

The 25-year-old lifted 88kgs in snatch and 115 kg in clean and jerk. This effort helped her to fourth place in the world rankings behind China’s Jiang Huihua (212kg) and Hou Zhihui (211kg) and Korea’s Ri Song Gum (209kg). The Nationals serve as a testing ground for Chanu and other leading weightlifters ahead of the Olympic gold event Asian Championships that will be held in April in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

Earlier, Youth Olympic champion Jeremy Lalrinnunga (17) bettered his clean and jerk record to win the men’s 67kg title on Monday.

The teenage Mizoram lifter, who became the first Indian to win gold at the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina in 2018, lifted 132 kg after two failed efforts but saved his best for the last in clean and jerk to lift 167 kg. His total was 299 kg. His personal best of 306 kg recorded at the International Qatar Cup was not bettered though. IANS

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