MIRABAI CHANU MAKES INDIA PROUD, WINS GOLD AT WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPIONSHIP

Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, an Indian female weightlifter has made India proud by winning the World Weightlifting Championship at Ahaheim, California. As Mirabai Chanu bowed and brought her palms together to form a namaste to the judges, she stepped away from the barbell and broke into a wide smile as she had finally got into gold medal position on the charts.

Mirabai lifted her personal best in career totaling 194kg to beat Sukcharoen Thunya of Thailand to the second place by a slim margin of 1kg. She was also the winner in clean and jerk of the event, reports Xinhua news agency.

Mirabai’s win has ended India’s 22 year old drought as the last title was won by Karnam Malleswari who had won two titles in 1994 and 1995. Mirabai had failed to register for the Rio Olympics as she had to return home empty handed because of no-lift in the clean and jerk.

This could called sheer luck as China and Turkey were among the nine nations that were not competing in Anaheim as a result of a ban imposed on them by the International Weightlifting Federation. As per the rules, any country with more than three positive tests uncovered by the International Olympic Committee during the retesting of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Games would be banned.