This time India’s only entry in weightlifting in Tokyo Olympic Games will be via Mirabai Chanu, who will compete in the women’s 49kg category. Her event is the day after the opening ceremony. That is, on the very first day, India’s hope to winmedals will kick off.
Mirabai Chanu also participated in the Rio Olympics last time. In the snatch event, she finished third with a lift of 82 kg, but despite not being successful in lifting 103 kg in the first attempt in clean and jerk, she increased the weight by three kg in the second attempt in which she was not effective, and later in the third attempt she got disqualified.
However, in the Asian Championship, held in Tashkent two years ago, she surprised everyone by lifting 119 kg in clean and jerk, and in the snatch, she was successful in lifting 86 kg. In this way, she performed the best of her career by lifting a total of 207 kg.
The same Mirabai became the world champion four years ago by lifting a total of 196 kg. She has lifted more weight than this in the National Championship last year. In the Asian Championship held in Tashkent, no competitor who lifted less than 205 kg could not get a medal, this makes a fact evident that the competition has gone up.Mirabai has a total of 14 competitors in her weight category in Tokyo and she currently ranks third among all competitors when it comes to her current performance.
The strongest claim for the gold medal in Tokyo is China’s Hou Zhihui, who is the 2018 World Champion and the 2019 runner-up.
In last year’s Asian Championship in Tashkent, Zhihui surpassed Mirabai by lifting 96 kg in snatch and 117 kg in clean and jerk. It is obvious that in snatch she is lifting about 10 kg more than Mirabai but in clean and jerk Zhihui is two kilograms behind Mirabai.
Apart from this, Jordan Delacruz of America is also lifting a total of two kilograms more than Mirabai. Since then, Delacruz has not appeared in any world-class competition. She is a strong contender for at least a silver medal this time, as she has made some improvements in the snatch event, and in clean and jerk.