Mirabai Chanu Wins Gold in 49kg Weightlifting with Personal Best and Commonwealth Games Record

India’s weightlifting icon Mirabai Chanu claimed India’s first gold medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games with a dominant performance in the 49 Kg women’s weightlifting event.

Heading into the games as an overwhelming favourite, Chanu won the event with a combined effort of  201 Kg in snatch and clean and jerk.

CWG 2022 – FULL COVERAGE | IN-DEPTH | INDIA FOCUS | OFF THE FIELD | IN PHOTOS

This is Chanu’s third medal at the Commonwealth Games, after her silver in the 2014 edition in Glasgow and the gold at Gold Coast 2018 in the 48 Kg category.

A lot of hopes were pinned on the champion weightlifter from Manipur and the Rio 2020 Olympic silver medallist came through for the cause of the nation.

The 27-year-old Imphal native had to shoulder the burden of being the bookies’ favourite to bag the gold in Birmingham and delivered the same without any hiccups.

ALSO READ| CWG 2022: Sanket Sargar Wins Silver Through Pain and with Learnings of Being a Paan Seller

Before her first attempt, she was the perfect image of calm as she was pictured backstage while all the other competitors were attempting their best to mount a challenge worthy enough to trouble the undisputed Indian weightlifting superstar.

But, all it took for Chanu to outbid her rivals was a single attempt. She was one and done in the snatch as she lifted 84 Kilograms on her first try in the snatch variant of the event.

ALSO READ | CWG 2022: ‘Mirabai Chanu Makes India Proud Once Again!’ PM Modi Lauds Gold Medal

And with her second attempt, she broke her personal best, Commonwealth Games record and the Commonwealth record with a successful lift of 88 Kgs. But, she wasn’t done there.

Despite not being able to land her third attempt at the snatch, the elusive 90 Kgs mark, she headed into the clean and jerk variant of the event with a massive lead of 12 Kilograms over her closest competitor.

Mirabai Chanu started her clean and jerk attempt with a 109 Kg and the defending champion sealed the title once again with her first try.

ALSO READ | Happy that I Was Able to Win India’s First Gold at CWG 2022: Mirabai Chanu

But, she did not stop there as she increased the challenge on her second attempt as she lifted 113 Kg. She followed it up with a 115 Kg attempted lift that she wasn’t able to complete.

Her efforts handed India its third medal of the games and on the day as she followed fellow weightlifters Sanketh Sargar and Gururaja Poojary in climbing on the podium.

Sargar opened India’s medal tally at this edition of the CWG with his silver medal performance in the 55 Kg category of men’s weightlifting.

Poojary complimented Sargar’s silver with a bronze of his own as he stormed to a hard-fought third-place finish that went down to his last attempt.

Read all the Latest News and Breaking News here