Olympic silver medalist Mirabai Chanu will be India's biggest hope for a medal in weightlifting at Commonwealth Games 2022. Chanu will be heading to Birmingham also as the defending champion.
At the Tokyo Olympics Chanu won the silver medal in the 49kg weight category as she lifted a total weight of 202 kg. In April 2021, she won the bronze medal at the 2020 Asian Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent where she lifted 86 kg in snatch and then created the world record by lifting 119 kg in the clean and jerk, for a total of 205 kg
India will be sending a 15-strong contingent, headlined by Chanu and the contingent is expected to return with a bagful of medals. The 2022 contingent will be measured against the high standards that the Indian weightlifters set during the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
The Indian weightlifters had a happy time during the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Gold Coast as they won nine medals. Of the nine medals that India clinched five were gold, two were silver and two were bronze. India ended up being the best-performing nation in weightlifting.
Historically India is a force to reckon with in the Commonwealth Games in the absence of traditional powerhouses like China and North Korea. India is the second most successful nation in the sport with 125 medals, including 43 golds, behind Australia's 159.
Here is the complete Indian weightlifting contingent along with the weight category for Commonwealth Games 2022:
Men:
Sanket Sargar (55kg), Gururaja (61kg), Jeremy Lalrinnunga (67kg), Achinta Sheuli (73kg), Ajay Singh (81kg), Vikas Thakur (96kg), Lovepreet Singh (109kg) and Gurdeep Singh (+109kg)
Women:
Mirabai Chanu (49kg), Bindyarani Devi (55kg), Popy Hazarika (59kg), Harjinder Kaur (71kg), Punam Yadav (76kg), Usha B.N. (87kg), and Purnima Pandey (+87kg)
First Published: Jul 19, 2022 1:45 PM IST
