Commonwealth Video games: A cheerful searching floor for Indian weightlifters
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A brand new rule prevented India from rejigging the load classes of its lifters for max benefit however nation's 15-strong contingent, headlined by Mirabai Chanu, remains to be anticipated to return with a bagful of medals from the Birmingham Commonwealth Video games.
The Commonwealth tournaments, be it the CWG or the Commonwealth Championships, have been a cheerful searching floor for Indian weightlifters, who revel within the absence of conventional powerhouses like China and North Korea.
India have completed because the best-performing nation within the sport within the 1990, 2002, and 2018 editions. They're the second most profitable nation within the sport with 125 medals, together with 43 golds, behind Australia (159), whose dominance has taken a success in the previous couple of editions.
Indian weightlifters reigned supreme within the 2018 Gold Coast Video games, bringing house a wealthy haul of 9 medals together with 5 golds. And this yr too, all 15 lifters are able to podium finishes.
Nevertheless, solely a handful of them are anticipated to strike gold.
To extend India's probabilities of successful extra gold medals within the ladies's occasions, the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) and head coach Vijay Sharma deliberate to area Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Chanu, a sure-shot title contender, within the 55kg weight division.
Jhilli Dalabehera and S Bindyarani Devi had been to compete within the 49kg and 59kg respectively whereas Poppy Hazarika would have introduced her problem within the 64kg division.
However the entries had been rejected based mostly on a brand new rule that acknowledged solely the top-ranked lifter in a class will qualify for the CWG and if he/she withdraws, the subsequent finest lifter is not going to get the berth, as was the case earlier than.
This pressured Chanu (49kg), Bindyarani (55kg), and Poppy (59kg) to drop again a weight class every which resulted in Jhilli lacking out on the quadrennial occasion and no Indian illustration in 64kg.
On the Video games, all eyes will, little doubt, be on Chanu however whereas all others will attempt to face atop the rostrum, the previous world champion, whose private finest within the ladies's 49kg stands at 207kg (88kg 119kg), a whopping 39kgs greater than the second finest lifter within the area, successful the yellow steel is nearly a certainty.
All she has to do is execute two authorized lifts, one every within the snatch and clear and jerk, to win her third CWG medal. She does not even must deliver her A sport as her nearest rival, Nigeria’s Stella Kingsley's finest effort to this point is simply 168kg (72kg 96kg).
Nevertheless, the 27-year-old, who already has a CWG gold and silver in her trophy cupboard, has set herself larger targets. Chanu is predicted to rewrite her clear and jerk world file of 119kg and can also be desperate to breach the much-anticipated 90kg mark within the snatch part.
"CWG is comparatively straightforward for me, I will probably be combating with myself. We now have deliberate to raise 91kg or 92kg on the CWG. Hopefully, it should occur," she had advised PTI in an interview final month.
Different Indian weightlifters are anticipated to face powerful competitors from their Nigerian and Malaysian counterparts within the ladies’s and males’s occasions respectively.
Youth Olympics gold medallist Jeremy Lalrinnunga's (67kg) probabilities of successful a gold have brightened significantly as Pakistan’s Talha Talib, the favorite to win the 67kg title, is present process suspension after testing optimistic for banned substances.
Jeremy, who has excelled on the junior and youth stage, is coming off a decrease again harm that marred his world championship marketing campaign final December and the prodigiously proficient 19-year-old will probably be keen to go away a mark on the senior stage and earn a medal on his debut.
Two different title contenders are debutants Achinta Sheuli (73kg) and Ajay Singh (81kg). Each gained the gold on the Commonwealth Championships in December.
Junior world championship silver medallist, Achinta, who has a private better of 316kg (143kg 173kg) should overcome Malaysia’s Erry Hidayat, who has the identical finest effort because the Indian.
Ajay, then again, will fancy his possibilities towards his nearest rival Kyle John Ryan Christopher Park Bruce of Australia, whose private finest is six kg lower than the Indian's.
Other than Chanu, the contingent additionally has earlier CWG medallists in P Guruaja (61kg), the seasoned Vikas Thakur (96kg), who will probably be vying for a 3rd medal having gained silver and bronze within the 2014 and 2018 video games respectively, and Punam Yadav (76kg).
It is going to be a tall activity for 2018 bronze medallist Gururaja to win the gold as he should deal with Gold Coast CWG 62kg champion Muhammad Aznil bin Bidin of Malaysia, who lifted eight kgs greater than the Indian on the Commonwealth Championships.
Thakur’s finest shot seems to be bronze as Canadian Boady Santavy and Cypriot lifter Antonis Martasidis have a recorded higher complete efforts than him.
It is going to be the primary time India will area lifters within the plus weight classes within the type of Purnima Pandey ( 87kg) and Gurdeep Singh ( 109kg).
The CWG is arguably the simplest platform for the Indian lifters to win medals and it isn't a query of if however what number of the Indian contingent brings again this time.
"Our intention is to win extra medals than final time. Hopefully, we will deliver again 4-5 golds," Sharma mentioned.
Workforce:
Girls: Mirabai Chanu (49kg), Bindyarani Devi (55kg), Popy Hazarika (59kg), Harjinder Kaur (71kg), Punam Yadav (76kg), Usha Kumari (87kg), Purnima Pandey ( 87kg).
Males: Sanket Sagar (55kg), Gururaja Poojary (61kg), Jeremy Lalrinnunga (67kg), Achinta Sehuli (73kg), Ajay Singh (81kg), Vikas Thakur (96kg), Lovepreet Singh (109kg), Gurdeep Singh ( 109kg).
[Watch the LIVE coverage of Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games on SONY SIX,SONY TEN 1, SONY TEN 2, SONY TEN 3 & SONY TEN 4 channels starting from 28th July 2022 at 11:30 pm IST.]
This story has been printed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content. Solely the headline has been modified.[ad_2]
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