Weightlifting: India
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2017
The best players
February 13, 2018: The Times of India
From: February 13, 2018: The Times of India
Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu
Please see picture: K Sanjita Chanu, achievements at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships, 2017
SAIKHOM MIRABAI CHANU
Became only the second Indian weightlifter after Karnam Malleswari to win gold at the World Weightlifting Championships. In the women’s 48kg event, she lifted a new world record of 194kg - 85kg snatch and 109kg cleanand-jerk. Broke her own existing record in the snatch event at the Commonwealth Senior weightlifting championships with a lift of 85kg. With this gold medal, Chanu qualified for the 2018 Commonwealth Games to be held in Australia.
SATHISH KUMAR SHIVALINGAM
Won gold in the men’s 77kg event at the Commonwealth Senior weightlifting championships held in Australia, with a total effort of 320kg (148kg in snatch, 172kg in clean & jerk). With this, he sealed passage to the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
RAGALA VENKAT RAHUL
Won two gold medals in the men’s 85kg categories at the Commonwealth Senior weightlifting championships held in Australia, with a standout total lift of 351kg (156kg in snatch, 195kg in clean & jerk). The youngster from Guntur created two records and won two gold medals in the 85kg category.
JEREMY LALRINNUNGA
Clinched silver in the boy’s 56kg category at the IWF Youth World Weightlifting Championships in Bangkok. The 14-year-old lifted a total of 240kg (110 in snatch and 130 in clean & jerk) to finish second in the event. Won gold (53kg) at the Commonwealth Senior weightlifting championships held in Australia.
2018
Commonwealth Games
Weightlifting, Deepak Lather (Bronze in the men's 69 kg event)
April 6, 2018: The Times of India
Teenager Deepak Lather has extended India’s weightlifting medal tally at the 2018 Commonwealth Games to four by winning bronze in the men’s 69kg event. In his first appearance at the quadrennial games, the 18-year-old from the village of Shadipur in Haryana - who was once enrolled at Pune’s Army Sports Institute as a diver - finished with a combined effort of 295kg (136 in snatch and 159 in clean & jerk) at the Carrara Sports and Leisure Centre on April 6, 2018.
Lather, who two years ago broke the Commonwealth Youth Games record in Samoa, moved into medal contention with lifts of 132kg and 136kg in the snatch event, but slipped to level second after failing to lift 138kg in his third attempt. In the clean & jerk, a section in which there were six lifters with higher weights, the youngster produced a personal best of 159kg, bettering his previous best of 157, but failed to lift 162 in his third attempt.
Marginally in line for a bronze, the prize for India was confirmed when Samoa’s Vaipova Ioane failed to seal bronze. It is an outstanding result from the teenager, who entered his maiden Commonwealth Games with plenty of expectation but who was competing with some far more experienced weightlifters.
Winning gold in the 69kg event was Gareth Evans of Wales with a total lift of 299kg (136 in snatch, 163 in clean & jerk) followed by Sri Lanka’s Indika Dissanayake with 297 (137 in snatch, 160 in clean & jerk).
Born into a family of farmers, Deepak took to weightlifting at the age of nine when his father Bijender noticed his strength while ploughing the field and lifting burlap sacks of fodder onto his back. In 2008, he impressed during a series of trials conducted across Haryana by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and was chosen to travel to Pune where, interestingly, he was trained as a diver. As it turned out, Deepak was disinterested in diving and found his calling when he was re-assigned to be a weightlifter.
The hard work began to pay off after a slow start when in 2015 he won the youth (Under-17) 62kg category at the Commonwealth Championships, a silver medal at the Asian Youth Championships and became the youngest Indian weightlifter to enter the World Championships. In 2016, at the age of 15, Deepak became the youngest Indian to win the national championship when he smashed the country’s long-standing 62kg snatch record and finished with a total of 267kg.
At the Commonwealth Games Championships in 2017, Deepak won gold in the 69kg category and bronze in the senior men’s section to heighten expectations at the CWG. As it continues to be proven, diving’s loss has become weightlifting’s gain.
2019
Asian Championship
Youth record for Jeremy; Mirabai misses bronze
April 22, 2019: The Times of India
Former world champion Mirabai Chanu produced her personal best but missed out on a podium finish by a whisker, while Youth Olympics gold medallist Jeremy Lalrinnunga went on a recordsmashing spree at the Asian Weightlifting Championship.
The 24-year-old Mirabai lifted 86kg in snatch and a personal best of 113kg in clean and jerk for a total of 199kg in the women’s 49kg event to finish on fourth position.
Her earlier personal best total in 49kg was 192kg in the EGAT Cup in Thailand in February.
In a remarkable performance, 16-year-old Jeremy secured second place in Group B of the 67kg men’s event. During his record-smashing spree, he claimed three world marks.
Earlier in the day, Jhili Dalabehera opened India’s medal account, claiming a silver medal in the women’s 45kg category. However, 45kg is not a Olympic weight category.
The points gathered from this event will come in handy when the final rankings for 2020 Tokyo Olympics are made next year.
Unfortunately Mirabai missed the bronze as China’s Zhang Rong with the same total of 199kg (88kg+111kg) finished third under new rules, which came into effect in 2017. Under these rules, the competitor who has a lower clean and jerk result (that means higher snatch result) will be ranked higher in the classification of athletes for total lift. The gold medal went to Hou Zhihui of China who produced an effort of 208kg (92kg+116kg) while North Korea’s Ri Song-gum clinched the silver, lifting 200kg (86kg+114kg) in the gold level Olympic qualifier.
After clearing 86kg in her snatch, Mirabai began her clean and jerk with a 109kg and then lifted 113kg successfully. But in her third attempt, the Manipuri could not lift 115kg and that cost her dear. Had she been successful in her attempt to lift 115kg, she would have won a silver with a total of 201kg. PTI
Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship
Day 1/ 13 medals, including eight gold
Mirabai bags gold at C’wealth meet
Apia (Samoa): Former world champion Mirabai Chanu led the Indian medal rush by notching up a gold on the opening day of the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in Apia, Samoa. The Indian contingent won 13 medals that included eight gold, three silver and two bronze medals in senior, junior and youth categories. Mirabai lifted a total of 191kg (84kg + 107 kg) in the senior women’s 49 kg event to win the gold in the Olympic qualifying event. Jhilli Dalabehra also clinched first place with a lift of 154kg (70kg+94kg) in senior women's 45 kg event. In 55kg, Soroikhaibam Bindyarani Devi and Matsa Santoshi won the gold and silver medals respectively. Bindyarani lifted 78 kg in snatch to bag silver. In senior men's 55kg, Rishikanta Singh grabbed gold with a total of 235kg .
Day 2: 7 gold medals
July 11, 2019: The Times of India
Rakhi Halder and Davinder Kaur won a gold medal each in the senior women’s section as Indian weightlifters continued their impressive show on the second day of the Commonwealth Championships here on Wednesday. India had also won five other gold medals in the junior and youth sections.
Kaur lifted a total of 184kg (80+104) to win the women’s 59kg gold while Halder clinched the yellow metal with a combined effort of 214kg (94+120) in the 64kg category. India had clinched 8 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals on Day 2. Former world champion Mirabai Chanu had won the gold in women’s 49kg with a total lift of 191kg. PTI
IWF strips SAG competition of Olympic status; India affected
Sabi Hussain, Nov 26, 2019: The Times of India
Indian weightlifting’s two best Tokyo Olympic hopes, Mirabai Chanu and Jeremy Lalrinnunga, have suffered a setback in their quest to qualify for the Summer Games next year – for no fault of theirs.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has stripped the weightlifting competition at the upcoming South Asian Games (SAG) in Nepal of its Olympic qualification status for not adhering to its ‘whereabouts’ rule concerning dope testing of athletes.
As a result, the SAG will no longer serve as a qualification gateway to Tokyo for weightlifters of participating nations – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives and hosts Nepal. For the record, weightlifting at the SAG, scheduled to be held from December 1 to 10, was the only discipline which had been labelled a ‘silver level’ Olympic qualification event by the IWF.
The Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) had entered Mirabai and Jeremy’s entries keeping in mind the fact that the Games will provide a perfect chance to the two weightlifters to strengthen their world rankings, given the relatively low level of competition on offer. Mirabai and Jeremy will now compete in the International Cup in Doha, Qatar from December 19 to 24, which will act as a qualification event. The IWLF will send a junior team to Nepal.
Sources informed TOI that some participating nations did not submit the whereabouts of their weightlifters to IWF in advance, and the world governing body stripped the Games of its qualification status. IWF rule states that the federations sending athletes to a qualifying meet will have to send details at least two months in advance.
World Championship
Mirabai Lifts 201 Kg, Four Times Her Body Weight
Sabi Hussain, Sep 20, 2019: The Times of India
Mirabai Saikhom Chanu failed to clinch a medal at the World Championships in Pattaya, Thailand on Thursday, but achieved what no other Indian woman weightlifter has been able to accomplish so far – lift a total that was more than four times her body weight.
Mirabai came agonisingly close to a podium finish before settling for a fourth-place finish in the 49kg category. In the process, she became the first woman weightlifter from the country to breach the magic mark of 200kg – she lifted a total of 201 (87 in snatch and 114 in clean and jerk) in her weight category. She surpassed her personal best of 199kg, which she had achieved at the Asian championships in Ningbo, China this April.
China’s Jiang Huihua (total 212 – 94 snatch and 118 clean and jerk) won the gold medal, while silver went to another Chinese lifter, Hou Zhihui (total 211 – 94 snatch and 117 clean and jerk) and North Korea’s Song Gum (total 204 – 89 snatch and 115 clean and jerk) settled for bronze. Mirabai’s fourth finish in the 33-strong field did a world of good to her Tokyo Olympics qualification chances. The Pattaya Worlds is a qualifying meet and performances in the event will hold much significance when global rankings in each weight category will be released by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) at the end of the qualification cycle in April 2020.
Mirabai is at present ranked third in the world in her 49kg category and she is almost certain to travel to Tokyo being the country’s No.1 in her weight division. A country (read Indian weightlifting body) can nominate only one weightlifter in each qualified weight category for the Olympics and there is little doubt that entry would be of Mirabai. In Olympics, each weight category will have a total of 14 lifters (13 those who will qualify based on world rankings and one from the host nation i.e. Japan).
Mirabai’s coaches have planned two more competitions in coming months, which will fall in the Olympic qualification cycle, to enable her to continue in the same position. “Lifting a total in excess of 200kg is generally considered a safe mark for a lifter since not many, apart from Chinese and Koreans, have bene able to breach that figure in this weight category,” India’s chief national weightlifting coach Vijay Sharma told TOI from Pattaya.
“It’s been just a few months since Mirabai has started competing again. She had suffered a careerthreatening back injury in 2018, which kept her out of the arena for nine months. We don’t want to rush her into heavy training. She recently lifted a total of 203kg during a training session in Patiala and we wanted her to lift more than 200kg at the Worlds. Our focus is to get her lift a total of 210kg closer to the Tokyo Olympics,” said Sharma.
2021
Junior World Championships
Sheuli breaks 6 records, wins silver
Achinta Sheuli broke six national weightlifting records, including three in the senior group, on his way to silver-medal winning performance in the men's 73kg category of the Junior World Championships in Tashkent
