Weightlifting: Mirabai Chanu wins gold in first competitive meet after injury

Reigning world champion in her category, Mirabai Chanu, earlier today, won a Gold at the EGAT Cup taking place in Thailand. Since the IWF Silver Series Competition was a part of the Olympic Qualification to Tokyo 2020, the medal will help Chanu grab some much needed points in the lengthy process for Olympic qualification that lies ahead of her. https://twitter.com/TheBridge_IN/status/1093414437724205058?s=19 Chanu today lifted 82kg in snatch and 110kg in clean and jerk to notch up a total of 192kg in the 48kg category at the event. The lifter from Manipur had been out for more than half of 2018 tending to a lower back injury but this comeback does seem like she is on track for Tokyo 2020. In fact, since her disappointment at the Rio 2016 Games where she failed to lift the weight in any of the three clean and jerk attempts, she has been on the right path with a World Championship Gold in 2017 following it up with a Commonwealth Games gold last year. She had missed out on the world championships last year. Unlike this tournament in Thailand, the world championships are classified as a Gold series by the IWF in context of qualifying for the Olympics. The lower back injury which kept her out of the world championships also caused her to miss the Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018. The last time she competed had seen a fantastic performance from the young lifter. She had lifted 86kg in snatch and 110kg in clean and jerk at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, a Games record and also her personal best.