Mirabai Chanu Ranked Eighth In Latest Olympic Qualification Rankings

Former world champion Mirabai Chanu, who is trying to secure a place for the Tokyo Olympics 2020, retained the eighth position in the Olympic qualifiers ranking list which was made public by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) on Thursday.

The 25-year-old lifter has collected 2966.6406 ranking points so far in the race for Olympic qualification. Weightlifters who wish to represent their country and dream to qualify for Tokyo must compete in a tournament in each of three periods of six months (from November 2018 to April 2020), at least six events overall and in at least one gold and silver level event.

National coach Vijay Sharma told PTI, “The ranking points are based on the number of events a lifter participates in and Mirabai has missed a few competitions, including the World Championship in 2018, due to her back injury.” The coach further assured that Mirabai is still confident of her chances as he said, “But being eighth now is not a problem as after the final rankings list is made in April and the best results will be taken into account.”

Chanu has enjoyed a fair amount of success since making a comeback after injury which hindered her advancement in 2018. Chanu has been improving her performance in 2019 as she missed a bronze medal at the Asian Championships in April 2019 by a whisker.

The champion weightlifter had heaved a total weight of 199kg at the Asian  Championship by lifting 86kg in snatch and of 113 kg in clean and jerk which was also her personal best. Chanu further impressed everyone at the World Championship in September last year by lifting a total weight of 201 kg. She bettered her personal record in all categories at the event as she lifted 87 Kg in Snatch and 114 kg in clean and jerk.

Three of China’s weightlifters figure in the top five in the latest qualifying rankings, with current world champion and world record holder Hou Jihui in the lead. But at the Olympics, a country can send only one athlete in a weight class. In the men’s 67 kg category, Youth Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Lalrinuga is ranked 32nd with 2,310.9653 points.