Hamstring injury ends Achinta Sheuli's World Championships campaign
The West Bengal lifter had earlier won the gold in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the 73kg category.
Achinta Sheuli won India's third gold medal at the 2022 CWG. (Instagram/Achinta Sheuli)
Commonwealth Games champion weightlifter Achinta Sheuli was forced to withdraw from the World Championships at the last minute after he pulled his hamstring. Set to compete in Group C of the 73kg men's event, the West Bengal lifter pulled his left hamstring muscle during the warm-ups just before the competition on Friday.
The lifters who register the highest entry weight are placed in group A, followed by B and so on. "Achinta injured his hamstring during the warm-ups after the weigh-in. We didn't want to aggravate the injury, so we took a call at the last moment to withdraw from the competition," head coach Vijay Sharma told PTI on Saturday.
India has won one medal in the tournament. On Tuesday, star Indian lifter Mirabai Chanu won a silver medal in the women's 49kg event. While Chanambam Rishikanta Singh (61kg) and S Bindyarani Devi (59kg) finished 22nd and 25th in their respective events.
The 2022 World Championship is the first qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympics, where weightlifting events will be cut from 14 at Tokyo Games to 10. However, it is an additional event and not a compulsory one.
Under the 2024 Olympic qualification rule, a lifter has to compulsorily compete in the 2023 World Championships and the 2024 World Cup.
Apart from the above, the lifter also has to participate in three of the following events -- the 2022 World Championships, the 2023 Continental Championships, the 2023 Grand Prix 1, the 2023 Grand Prix II and the 2024 Continental Championships.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) will publish the Olympic Qualification Ranking (OQR) of each weight category at the end of the qualification period. A weightlifter's best three performances at the qualifying events will be taken into account for final assessment.