CHENNAI: The festivities have come to a finish. Season’s greetings have been doled out and India’s top athletes have returned back to base camp after enjoying a few guilt-free sweets over the last few weeks. The best in badminton are already in Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysia Masters as they aim to gun down an Olympic place in the next four months. Other athletes will soon join them in competitions around the world as they take aim for Tokyo.
One category of athletes, the lifters, however, will continue to be in camp in Patiala for the next four months. They will work on their technique and iron out flaws to prepare for Asian Championships at Nur-Sultan (April 16 - April 25). “That is what we are working towards,” senior lifting coach Vijay Sharma says. “It is the last of the qualifiers for the Olympics so it is a very important event for us.”
There are some 60-odd lifters in Patiala but most of the attention is trained on some of the country’s best, including former world champion Mirabai Chanu. The 25-year-old is odds on to qualify for the Games, something she will be assured of if she has a good outing in Nur-Sultan. “We are working on her squats right now,” Sharma says. “The key is to get her power up and the routine now is designed to optimise that aspect.”
Chanu, who competes in the 49kg category, won gold at the Qatar International Cup last month but her total lift of 194kg was disappointing. Sharma is of the opinion that she can overhaul her tally of 201kg at the Asian Championships. “We will be peaking towards achieving that milestone,” he says. “But we should also be careful of not overworking because the Olympics is just three months after that and it’s very difficult to be at our peak two times in three months.”
The qualifying system for Tokyo in weightlifting is such that all athletes will have to compete in six events in a specific time period with the international federation taking into account the four best from the six. In this metric, Chanu is favourite to stamp her name in April but Sharma advices caution for the meet in Kazakhstan. “We are not looking at a medal bracket there. Our aim there is to do well (lift above 201kg) and confirm our spot.”