CHENNAI: Despite being a former world champion, an Olympic silver medallist and three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Mirabai Chanu, somehow, could never finish on the podium at the Asian Games. In the past 12 years, she made two unsuccessful attempts while missing an opportunity due to injury but the medal remained elusive.
Given her previous stints, the ongoing continental multi-discipline event in Nagoya, Japan gained a lot more significance for the Manipuri lifter, who turned 32 only the previous month. Expectations were high and so were the burden of the past memories, especially the Hangzhou Games, where she was seen in a lot of pain on the platform. But Mirabai, being a champion she is, overcame all those on Wednesday to complete her collection of medals by securing a silver medal in the 49kg weight category at the 2026 Asian Games with a total lift of 198kg (87kg in snatch and 111kg in clean and jerk).
RI Song Gum of North Korea (94+121=215) set world records in snatch, clean and jerk and overall lift to emerge clear winner while Wijayana Luluk Diana Tri of Indonesia (88+103=191) finished third.
The snatch lift has been Mirabai's Achilles' heel over the years but the Indian could not have afforded any slip up this time with Fang Wan-ling of Chinese Taipei and Luluk Diana Tri breathing down her neck. She lifted 83kg in her first attempt and increased it by two kilograms in the next attempt. The final successful attempt of 87kg meant she was leading the race by that time. Fang faded away in the meantime but the Indonesian lifter took a slender one kilogram lead after the end of the snatch section.
Even as Song Gum, two-time World Champion (2025 and 2024) and back-to-back gold winner at the Asian Games, was demolishing the field, Mirabai was locked in an intense battle with the Indonesian as the clean and jerk section commenced. Mirabai lifted 107kg in her first C&J attempt and followed it up with 111kg in the second attempt. The Indonesian failed to lift 103kg in her first attempt only to heave it in the next. She remained unsuccessful in her last attempt where she was trying to lift 107kg that eventually confirmed Mirabai a silver medal at the event.
Notably, the Asian Games have never been a favourite hunting ground for Mirabai. It all started in 2014 when she finished ninth in the 48kg by lifting a total weight of 171kg (75kg in snatch and 96kg in clean and jerk). She missed the next edition four years later due to lower back injury.
The 2022 Asian Games, which were held a year later due to Covid, brought a new hope for the Indian lifter especially after she pocketed a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were staged in 2021. The outing ended in a heartbreak as she had only two successful lifts - one each in snatch (83kg) and clean and jerk (108) - to finish fourth. She looked in extreme pain and later revealed that she had hurt her right thigh during warm-up, which eventually affected her campaign.
Three years ago, Song Gum shattered the world record in clean and jerk (124kg) and overall lift (216kg) to finish on top of the podium. China’s Jiang Huihua broke the Games record in snatch with a 94kg effort, won silver with a total lift of 213kg (119kg in C&J). Thailand's Thanyathon Sukcharoen lifted 199kg (90kg+109kg) for bronze.
As expected, Song Gum once again finished on top of the podium to complete a hat-trick of gold with Mirabai following her to end more than a decade-old long wait.
