Olympic silver medallist Mirabai Chanu defied a wrist issue and the distraction of attending the opening ceremony on the eve of her competition to land her maiden gold medal in the women’s 49kg category at the weightlifting arena on Mahatma Mandir campus in the National Games on Friday.
Mirabai and her Manipur rival Sanjita Chanu pushed each other tactically before the former prevailed with a snatch effort of 84kg and a clean and jerk mark of 107kg on her second attempts to record a total of 191kg. She beat Sanjita, who put up a spirited performance to aggregate 187kg, by four kg.
Participating in her second National Games, Mirabai revealed that she was nursing an injury in her left wrist, due to which she didn’t turn up for both her third attempts. “I recently injured my left wrist during training at NIS, Patiala, after which I made sure not to risk it further. The World Championships are coming up in December,” she said.
“It is a proud moment for me to represent Manipur at the National Games, and the excitement doubled when I was asked to lead the contingent at the Opening Ceremony. It normally gets hectic to attend opening ceremonies as my event starts early the next day, but I felt I must challenge myself this time around,” she added.
