MIRABAI CHANU WINS SILVER IN THE WEIGHTLIFTING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Mirabai Chanu, an Olympic silver medalist, won the silver medal on Wednesday in the weightlifting world championships in this city.

She lifted two weights totaling 200 kg (87kg in snatch and 113kg in clean and jerk). Mirabai competed in this as her first international event after taking home the gold at the August Commonwealth Games.

Jiang Huihua of China (206 kg) won gold, while Hou Zhihui of Tokyo (198 kg), the 49 kg Olympic champion, took home the bronze.

When Mirabai, on her third effort at a snatch, remarkably 'saved' herself from what appeared to be an impossible position, the crowd at the Gran Carpa Américas Corferias cheered her on with the loudest applause of the evening.

She seemed to have lost her balance and was about to fall to her knees on the platform, but she managed to keep her balance and make the lift. A few of the technical officials also applauded.

With a lift of 194 kg, Mirabai won her second medal at a Worlds after previously taking home the gold in the 2017 World Championships (85kg plus 109kg). She has come in fourth place in the 2019 competition.

The first of several competitions that will serve as Olympic Games qualifiers for Paris 2024 are the global championships. Based on their results in the world championships, the weightlifters competing in the 10 Olympic weightlifting categories (five men and five women) will be able to gain significant Olympic Qualification Ranking (OQR) points.

The OQR will be determined by the athletes' best overall lifts (snatch + clean and jerk) in the qualifying competitions. Olympic quotas will be allocated to the top 10 athletes based on OQR, which will have one highest-ranked athlete per nation in each weight category, when the qualification cycle concludes in April 2024.

Compared to Tokyo 2020, each National Olympic Committee (NOC) will only be able to qualify one athlete per weight category and three athletes per gender overall.

A maximum of 12 athletes, two less than in Tokyo 2020, will compete in each of the weight categories created at Paris 2024.