Why Mirabai Chanu feels World Championship is tougher than Olympics

Mirabai Chanu bagged her second World Weightlifting Championships medal in a silver in Bogota earlier this month. Twitter/Kiren Rijiju

Kolkata: Star weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu added another feather to her cap earlier this month in Bogota when the 2020 Olympics silver medallist bagged a World Weightlifting Championships silver medal too in her favoured 49kg category.

This was her second medal on the stage as she became a World Champion back in 2017 in the USA. But it won’t be wrong to say that the value of this silver is perhaps bigger than her 2017 triumph and may as well dwarf her Tokyo success too.

And that’s down to the highly competitive field that the 28-year-old Indian athlete came up against two Chinese heavyweights in reigning Olympic Champion Hou Zhihui and three-time World Champion Jiang Huihua.

The Olympics rule of allowing one lifter per nation meant Mirabai had a headache less in Tokyo.

In 2017, none of the Chinese were there to worry her with the International Weightlifting Federation’s ban on China among nine nations.

“Olympics se World Championship tough hai (World Championship is tougher than Olympics),” Mirabai told Firstpost from her hometown Manipur on Wednesday. “You are competing against 50 players in 49kg. From each nation there were two participants, especially China got their two best lifters too. That’s why winning this medal was never going to be easy.”

Taking a look at the 49kg field on the global stage, Mirabai and the two Chinese are locked in a battle for supremacy with the Indian holding the clean and jerk’s world record of 119kg. Zhihui (96kg; world record) and Huihua (94kg), on the other hand, are much stronger in the snatch category and have a better all-around game to often pip the Indian to the top.

Aware of her rival’s strength, Mirabai knew she couldn’t afford a slip-up in Bogota but resurfacing of her wrist injury tested her might further as she risked competing.

“I was worried because my wrist pain was back while training in the USA (in St Louis, where she trained with national coach Vijay Sharma for two weeks to acclimatise to the local conditions) and that’s why in Colombia I was aiming not to pick more than 87kg in snatch,” she explained.

However, a ‘no lift’ of her second attempt of 87kg forced Mirabai to re-attempt the lift and the Tokyo silver medallist stunned the crowd by salvaging a rare lift from a squat position.

Shedding more light on her injury, coach Sharma said the injury resurfaced while training in the USA and upon consulting, their trusted strength and conditioning coach Dr. Aaron Horschig suggested that the elite athlete could compete without stretching herself.

“After she complained of pain in her wrist it made me think we can’t go to Bogota anymore,” said Sharma. “Consulting with Dr. Horschig revealed that small muscles in Mira’s wrist are weak and it often gets injured but could compete if she doesn’t push too hard.”

Trouble was waiting for Mirabai post her Colombia show as it was revealed that a lower back pain will keep her away from hard training for a month. Mirabai currently is back in her hometown in Manipur but will be soon at the national camp in Patiala with no time to waste.

“I will be undergoing recovery from injury in Patiala and have not much time to waste as we have to start preparing for Asian Championships in May (an Olympic ranking tournament). I am not certain yet if I will go to the USA or other foreign camp for training,” said Mirabai before concluding.

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