CHENNAI: Tuesday brought with it, a whole lot of good news for India’s Olympic effort. At the National Weightlifting Championships in Kolkata, Mirabai Chanu rewrote her own national record in women’s 49kg before flashing her trademark smile. She lifted an impressive 88kg in snatch — one more than she had lifted at last year’s World Championships in Thailand — and 115kg in clean & jerk.
She has been pushing it up, kilo by kilo, and the latest mark stands at 203kg. Only three lifters in her category, who’ll be present at Tokyo, have done better. The Chinese duo of Hou Zhihui and Jiang Huihua have 211kg and 212kg, respectively. North Korea’s RI Song Gum has a best of 209. One of them faltering at the Olympic means Mirabai could come home with a medal. Olympic qualification is virtually certain for the Manipur lifter now, even though the final list will only be out towards the end of April.
She’s not waiting around for someone to fall though, Mirabai’s heart is set on catching up with the people in front of her. On Tuesday, it was 203kg. In Tokyo, she targets 210. “I’m targeting 90-plus in snatch,” she says. “In clean & jerk, I’m trying to touch 120. All my training now is geared towards that. Earlier, I used to give 80-85 per cent in training. We are planning to increase the levels.”
And while any medal would be celebrated wildly across the country, Mirabai has eyes only on the top prize. “I want to fight for gold and I will work hard to make sure I do that,” she says. She might sound bullish, but things were looking bleak for her, not so long ago. After winning gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, she suffered a back injury that kept her out of most of 2018. The injury was affecting Mirabai’s chances of making the Olympic cut. “I was down after the injury. The Olympics was close and I was missing the World Championships.”
When she made her return in February 2019, she was not far away from her best. “I went to the EGAT Cup in Thailand and won gold. That restored a lot of confidence and I began to believe that I would be back to my best and accomplish something in Tokyo.” She went on to lift 199kg at the Asian Championships in April, missing out on a medal narrowly. At the World Championships in September, she finished fourth. But there was a happier subplot — Mirabai rewrote her own national record, lifting 201kg. After ending the year with gold in a tournament in Qatar, she looked primed to guarantee her place in Tokyo.
That looks certain now and she’s already being meticulous with her preparation. She has sessions with a psychologist to tackle the mental side of the sport. She has a nutritionist and her diet is something she puts a lot of care into. “I try to relax during training because I want to be in a good place mentally. And I’m careful about what I eat these days. If I eat wrong and fall sick, that can cause a problem.” Before that, there is the small matter of the Asian championships in April where she will hope to improve on her performance from last year. “The Asian Championships (in Kazakhstan) is the most important thing right now as I will know where I stand, in terms of performance. I’m focused on doing well there. After that event is done, we’ll formulate a detailed plan for Tokyo.”