Mirabai Chanu to compete in new weight category at 2022 Commonwealth Games

Chanu has achieved a lot of success competing in the 49kg weight division, including a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year. She also holds the clean and jerk world record in this weight class.

Tokyo: Chanu Saikhom Mirabai of India competes in the women's 49kg weightlifting event, at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 24, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. She won the silver medal.

Olympic silver medallist weightlifter Mirabai Chanu will compete in a new weight class -- 55kg -- at the Commonwealth Games later this year to help maximise India’s chances of winning more gold medals in the multi-sport event in Birmingham.

Chanu has achieved a lot of success competing in the 49kg weight division, including a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She also holds the clean and jerk world record in this weight class.

Before that, she used to compete in the 48kg class, winning the world championship gold in 2017. She won 48kg silver and gold in the 2014 and 2018 CWG, respectively.

However, head coach Vijay Sharma and the Indian Weightlifting Federation feel the 27-year-old has a better chance of winning the gold medal in the 55kg category at the 2022 CWG than compatriot Sorokhaibam Bindyarani Devi, who won a silver at the Commonwealth Championships in December last.

“We (coach and federation) had a meeting and discussed that India should bring back medals on all the women’s weight categories in the 2022 Commonwealth Games,” Chanu told PTI.

 

“There is a chance of getting 4-5 gold medals, and that’s why we decided that I’ll move up to 55kg. So, we can win one there,” Chanu, who is already a two-time CWG medallist, added.

India still has a gold medal contender in the 49kg, in Jhilli Dalabehera, who won a silver in the Commonwealth Championships.

“I'll have to work really hard, I’ll have to increase the weight (I lift) because it will be competitive (in 55kg). I won’t increase my weight, I’ll keep it as 50kg-51kg, which is my natural weight," said Chanu, who has a personal best of 207kg (88kg+119kg).

 

With the Asian Games scheduled to begin just a month after the Birmingham CWG (July 28 to August 8), Chanu is unsure if she will switch back to the 49kg class or continue in 55kg at the continental event.

 

“I haven’t decided which weight category I’ll compete in the Asian Games. I will decide that after CWG. If all goes well, I might continue in 55kg,” she added.

Chanu will be seen in action for the first time since her historic Tokyo performance at the Singapore Weightlifting International later this month, where she will look to qualify for the Commonwealth Games in her new category.

The lifter from Manipur is tweaking her snatch technique in the hopes of sorting out her “unbalance issue” and staving off injuries.

“I am focussing on snatch a bit more because it is my weakness. Snatch is all about technique, so I'm working on that, I’m trying to change it a little.

“This new technique will not be easy. But maybe by improving my technique a little, my unbalance issue may get sorted, and it may also lower the risk of injury.”