Olympic silver medalist weightlifter Mirabai Chanu will be ruled out of the World Championships and Commonwealth Senior Championships to be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from December 7-17.
Chanu, who won a silver medal in the women’s 49kg category at the Tokyo Olympics earlier this year and is also a former world champion, withdrew from two events on the advice of India’s head coach Vijay Sharma.
“Our main objective (for the World Championship and Commonwealth Senior Championship) is to make the weightlifters qualify for next year’s Commonwealth Games,” Sharma said. He said, ‘We had sent Meera’s entry but her performance is not good yet. We’ve been working on his snatch technique a little.
“His qualification (for CWG) is not an issue as he won the silver medal in the Olympics and he is also number one at the moment,” he added.
The Commonwealth Senior Championships was earlier scheduled to take place in Singapore from October 20 to 24, but was canceled due to COVID-19. Now it will take place at the same venue along with the World Championships next month.
Twenty lifters from across the country, including Youth Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Lalrinnunga, will take part in the tournament. Chanu, who set a world record in the clean and jerk event in the 49kg category after successfully lifting 119kg at the Asian Championships last year, has struggled to keep up with her Chinese opponents in the snatch category.
In her own words, the 27-year-old has struggled when lifting weights in the snatch due to an imbalance affecting her right shoulder and back. Chanu also consulted Dr. Aaron Horschig, a former weightlifter-turned-physical therapist and strength and conditioning coach in the US, which helped him win the silver medal in Tokyo.
Asked if Chanu was planning to go back to the US for training, Sharma said, “There is no need for it right now.” Sharma said the decision to pull out of the World Championships is a strategic one. “He is not facing any problem, but it is just that we are thinking strategically about which events to attend and which to miss.
“She has been participating in competitions continuously for the last five years. We have prepared but it is not enough for this event. “He had to carry extra weight for this event so I advised him to miss it,” he said.
However, in an interview with PTI last month, Chanu had revealed that she sometimes feels pain while lifting heavy weights. “The issue has been resolved, but sometimes, I have pain in my right shoulder and back due to imbalance. But there has been a lot of improvement already,” she had said.
“There are no plans to go to the US right now because the world championship is in December. After that we’ll probably make a plan. I am consulting him (Horsig) online on what to do. Asian Championship gold-medallist Membrane Dalbehera, who previously competed in the 45kg category, will represent India in the Chanu category at the event.