Mirabai Chanu bags gold at World Weightlifting Championships; Prez Kovind says ‘India is so proud of you’

Anaheim, November 30: India’s Saikhom Mirabai Chanu on Thursday made the whole country proud after she bagged a gold medal at the World Weightlifting Championships held in Anaheim, USA. President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday congratulated Mirabai Chanu and said that India is so proud of you. 

President Ram Nath Kovind posted a tweet in which he said, “Congratulations Mirabai Chanu for winning a gold medal in the World Weightlifting Championship. India is so proud of you.” “And congratulations Manipur for giving the country such a wonderful series of champion sportswomen!” he added. Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore and many other cabinet ministers took to a Twitter and congratulated Mirabai Chanu and lauded her extreme efforts to reach this stage.

Notably, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu has created a new world record of 194kg- 85kg snatch and 109kg clean-and-jerk - to lift gold at the World Weightlifting Championships. Thailand's Sukcharoen Thunya won the silver medal with a total lift of 193, while Segura Ana Iris bagged bronze with 182kg.

The Indian lifted a total of 85kg and then followed up with 109kg to deliver India its second gold medal since Malleswari who won a yellow metal in the year 1994 and 1995. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu has become the Indian weightlifter after Karnam Malleswari to achieve this feat.

However, in this tournament, some of the world’s top weightlifting nations such as Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Azerbaijan could not take part in the competition due to issues related to doping.

Chanu, who is employed with the Indian Railways, earlier, had won medals in Commonwealth games and silver medal in the women's 48 kg weight class at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow, Mirabai qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics in the women's 48 kg category. However, she failed to finish the event as she failed to lift the weight in any of her three attempts in clean & jerk section.