Mirabai Chanu won silver in the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships in Bogota, Colombia. She lifted a combined weight of 200 kg, with 87kg in snatch and 113kg in clean and jerk. China's Jiang Huihua won the gold medal with a combined lift of 206 kg (93kg plus 113kg). This was Jiang's third World Championships gold (she also has a silver). Bronze went to Olympic champion Hou Zhihui, also of China, with a total of 198 (89kg plus 109 kg).
Mirabai, the reigning Olympic silver medallist, had started slowly, with an 85kg lift in snatch. She couldn't lift her second attempt at 87kg before clearing her third with the same weight. This put her in fifth - behind Jiang, Romania's Mihaela Cambei, Brazil's Nina Sterckx and Hou. Jiang was clear atop the field with her 93kg, with Cambei second on 90kg.
Extremely humbled and grateful for this victory. Small step towards our eventual goal of an Olympic gold.
Gratitude to my Coach Vijay sir, our President IWLF Sahdev Yadav sir, Sports Authority of India, all the stakeholders and well wishers. Will always make you proud ���� pic.twitter.com/eTBsmdTsXR- Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (@mirabai_chanu) December 7, 2022
She failed on her first attempt at the clean and jerk but powered through to lift 111kg in her second attempt. This immediately lifted her into the medal positions. At this point Sterckx and Cambei fell off failing in their second and third attempts in the clean and jerk, while Hou skipped her last attempt at the clean and jerk having lifted 'only' 109 kg. Mirabai then hit 113 kg in her third attempt, to match Jiang's best in the clean and jerk. Jiang then failed on her world record breaking attempt of 120 kg in her final lift.
Olympic champion Hou appeared to be struggling on the day, lifting well below her world record personal best of 96 kg in snatch and national record personal best of 118kg in clean and jerk (Mirabai holds the world record in that, at 119kg).
Meanwhile, this was Mirabai's second medal at a Worlds after having earlier won gold in the 2017 World Championships, with a lift of 194kg (85kg plus 109kg). She had finished fourth in the 2019 edition.
"It's an emotionally proud moment for me to bring another world championship medal back home after five long years. The competition at the world championship is always intense with the best Olympians competing at the highest level," said Mirabai after winning the medal.
"I had wrist pain but I am always ready to push myself to cross the line for my country....I hope I'll be able to give India more of such moments preferably a Gold at the Asian Games and Paris Olympics as well,"
"We couldn't do much (about the injury) because we didn't want to skip the World Championships. Now, we will focus on her wrist because we have a lot of time before the next event," India's head coach Vijay Sharma told PTI.
"We were not taking any pressure for this event. This is the weight Mira lifts regularly. From now we will start increasing the weights and improving. Seeing Mira I believe we are on the right track and she is definitely going to only work harder to bring out her A- game in the upcoming Asian Games and the Olympics."
Earlier this year she had breezed to Commonwealth Games gold with a lift of 201 kgs (88kg plus 113kg).