Manipuri Olympic medalist Mirabai Chanu finishes sixth at Asian Weightlifting Championships

Mirabai Chanu, a Tokyo Olympic silver medalist, finished sixth in the 49kg weight category at the Asian Weightlifting Championships.

Chanu, who holds personal bests of 88kg and 119kg in snatch and clean and jerk, lifted 85kg in snatch and 109kg in clean and jerk for a total lift of 194kg.

She began with an 85kg snatch lift and attempted 88kg on her second and third tries but failed. Her performance earned her fifth place in the snatch category.

In clean and jerk, the Indian grabbed 109kg on her first effort and chose to miss the following two tries to avoid injury.

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Chanu's sole medal at the Asian Championships so far came in 2020, when she earned bronze with a total lift of 205kg, including a world record clean and jerk of 119kg.

The Asian meet was the Commonwealth Games champion's first competition since the global championship in December last year when she won silver and began a five-month recovery regimen.

The Asian Championships 2023 are the second in a series of qualifying events for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.

Chanu increased her Olympic Qualification Ranking (OQR) score to 400 with her combined lift of 194kg. She is ranked second, with Jiang Huihua dominating the OQR standings with 413 points.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) will issue a list of ten qualifying athletes in each Olympic weight category (maximum one per country) at the completion of the qualification session for the Paris Olympics on April 28, 2024.