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.
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.
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.