Mirabai Chanu clinched India's first medal of the Tokyo Olympics when she won a silver medal in the women's 49kg weightlifting category.
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Mirabai Chanu clinched India’s first medal of the Tokyo Olympics when she won a silver medal in the women’s 49kg weightlifting category. (Tokyo 2020 full coverage)
Mirabai Chanu, seen by many as a potential medallist in weightlifting, started the event well enough. She began proceedings with a clean snatch of 84kg.
At the time, it was the second highest snatch behind only China’s Hou Zhihui, who had done 88kg. Chanu then went one better in her second attempt, managing to successfully snatch 87kg. Now she was only a point behind Zhihui.
However, Zhihui surprised everyone in attendance when she nonchalantly snatched first 92 kg and then 94kg. The latter, it must be noted, is a new Olympic record.
At the end of the snatch, Chanu was second behind only Hou. Thus, she was under a lot of pressure going into the clean and jerk round.
That pressure went up when Zhihui managed a clean and jerk of 109kg in the first attempt. Chanu went one better in her first attempt, successfully lifting 110kg.
By that point, it was a clear shootout between Zhihui and Chanu for the gold medal but the Chinese wieghtlifter was ahead thanks to a much superior snatch.
Zhihui lifted 114kg in her second attempt which Chanu outdid when she did a clean and jerk of 115kg. The final act saw Zhihui manage to clean and jerk 116kg, which is an Olympic record.
Thus, her overall score of 210 was also an Olympic record. And even before Chanu lifted for the last time, she was assured of gold because the gap of 8 kg was too much to make up.
Still, Chanu decided to try and lift 117kg in her final attempt – which would break the Olympic record set just minutes earlier. However, she ended up unable to lift the weight.
Even so, it takes nothing away from her brlliant showing which saw her claim a well-deserved silver medal for her efforts.
This is India’s first medal in the Tokyo Olympics, with fans no doubt hoping there will be more to come in other disciplines.
India missed out on medal chances in archery and shooting earlier. However, there is plenty to play for in the coming days.
