Mirabai Chanu’s courageous push for a second consecutive Olympic medal ended on a disappointing note with the Tokyo Games silver medallist managing a fourth place finish with an aggregate of 199kg in the weightlifting hall of the South Paris Arena here on Wednesday.
With a clear target of securing a 200kg-plus total to assure herself a medal, the ace Indian lifter, who recovered from a hip injury she picked up at the Asian Games stage that kept her out of lifting for four months, took rapid strides while preparing for the Olympics but missed a podium finish by one kg.
Mirabai matched her best snatch effort of 88kg in her third attempt. She recorded a clean and jerk mark of 111kg in her fifth, while her final effort for 114kg, in order to ensure a medal, did not succeed. Because of her lower body weight, the Indian could have got a bronze medal even with a successful clean and jerk attempt of 112kg and tying on a total of 200kg with Thailand’s Sudorchana Khambao.
China’s Hou Zhihui overcame a strong challenge from two-time European champion Mihaela Cambei to defend her title in style with an aggregate of 206kg, including an Olympic clean and jerk record of 117kg.
Mihaela totalled 205kg, consisting of her impressive performance of 93kg in snatch.
Sudorchana’s 200kg included 88kg in snatch.
For Mirabai, it was a significant improvement on her last performance in the IWF World Cup, a mandatory Olympic qualifying event, where she returned to competition in April and lifted 184kg without taking any risk.
In her last proper competition in the 2023 Asian championships in Jinju, South Korea, Mirabai had totalled 194kg to take the sixth place. The last time she had aggregated 200kg was in the World championships in Bogota, Colombia, where she landed a silver, her second Worlds medal after her 48kg title in Anaheim in 2017. With clear signs of nervousness, Mirabai completed her routine, bowed to the weight and began her snatch with a successful attempt of 85kg. She was relieved to have recorded a mark and left with folded hands and a smile on her face.
The competition warmed up once the weight crossed the mid-80kg.
Attempting 88kg for the first time, Mirabai, with the weight overhead, could not get up from sitting position and left wondering what went wrong.
However, she fought back with more confidence. She held the barbell over her head, took a long pause and then stood up to the satisfaction of the judges. A wide round of applause and coach Vijay Sharma’s delight were obvious reactions as Mirabai, who stepped down from the stage wearing an ear-to-ear smile, had put herself in medal contention.
Mihaela successfully challenged defending champion Zhihui’s authority by making three good snatch lifts and the best one (93kg) putting her on top of the chart at the halfway stage.
Zhihui struggled with two no-lifts and was placed behind the stylish Romanian with her second attempt of 89kg.
Mirabai was third as she pipped Sudorchana even as both were tied on 88kg. The Indian was ahead as she was 200gm lighter than the Thai.
At the end, the two were engaged in a duel for a medal and the Indian ended up without it.
“I am happy with my performance. Coming back from an injury I gave my best. Everyone works hard, but getting a medal involves a little bit of luck as well. I am going through my periods, still I gave my best,” said Mirabai.
